Game Summary

ST. PAUL, Minn. — Heading into Friday's Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference opener against St.Thomas, the Saint Mary's University women's hockey team must have felt pretty good about opening their conference slate with a victory.

After all, the Cardinals and Tommies had squared off eight times in the last three years — and all eight times, including all four meetings between the two teams last season, it was SMU that was on top when the final horn sounded.

The Cardinals still haven't lost to the Tommies, but meeting No. 9 didn't go quite the same way the other eight had, either.

Despite outshooting St. Thomas 36-18, SMU needed a second-period goal by Jamie Staples (South St. Paul, Minn.) to salvage a 1-1 tie.

"It certainly wasn't our best effort," said SMU coach Duncan Ryhorchuk. "I thought we came out and played rather soft — we weren't aggressive at either end of the rink, and we just didn't have the zip that we should have."

And, unfortunately, the Cardinals' second-year head coach has a pretty good idea why.

"I think we came in a little overconfident," admitted Ryhorchuk. "It was almost like we figured, we've always beaten (St. Thomas) in the past, why should it be any different this time?"

Why? Because St. Thomas said so, that's why.

In fact, it was the Tommies who got on the scoreboard first, as Tiffany Petermeier beat SMU goalie Missie Meemken (St. Cloud, Minn.) just 58 seconds into the second period.

The Cardinals needed just 1:07 to retaliate, however, as Staples took a pass from Tennie McCabe (Rochester, Minn.) and beat UST goalie Danielle Mikolai with what proved to be the game's only other goal.

"Give St. Thomas a lot of credit, they played a very good game," said Ryhorchuk, whose team will get a second chance at the Tommies Saturday afternoon when the two teams square off at the SMU Ice Arena. "They were up for the game, and we weren't, it's as simple as that.