ROCHESTER — It’s going to be lonely at the top.

The Owatonna girls hockey team defeated Rochester Mayo 2-0 on Saturday afternoon at Graham Arena to clinch the outright Big Nine Conference title.

Coming into Saturday’s game, the Spartans could have still tied the Huskies, but Owatonna dashed any Mayo shared-title dreams with the road win.

Senior Cailyn McCauley got the Huskies off to a quick start with a power-play goal four minutes, 27 seconds into the game. It was her 24th goal of the season. Paige Lysne, McCauley’s varsity teammate for five years, earned an assist on the goal.

For the next 45 minutes, defenses controlled the game. Owatonna goalie Keshia Reuvers and Mayo goalie Rebecca Graham didn’t allow the puck past them. Down 1-0 with less than a minute to play, Mayo pulled Graham and Lysne slapped the puck down the ice and into an empty net. Lysne, who played defense when Owatonna defeated Mayo 2-1 in November, scored her 21st goal of the season.

Reuvers picked up her seventh shutout of the season.

With the conference situation taken care of, the Huskies (11-0 Big Nine, 17-5 overall) will spend the last couple weeks of the season trying to earn a high seed in the Section 1AA playoffs, which begin on Feb. 11. Up next for Owatonna is a road game Monday in Faribault.

Owatonna scoring: First period: 1, Cailyn McCauley (Paige Lysne) 4:27 pp. Third period: 2, Lysne (McCauley) empty net.