Game Summary

WINONA, Minn. — There's two ways Saint Mary's University women's hockey coach Duncan Ryhorchuk can look at Saturday's season-opening, 5-2 loss to UW-Superior.

On the one hand, he can be a little disappointed in the fact that the Cardinals managed just two goals, despite pelting UW-Superior goalie Kelly Timm with 38 shots, and scored on just one of 12 power-play opportunities.

On the other hand, Ryhorchuk can think back to a year ago, when the Cardinals opened the season with a loss to UW-River Falls, another Northern Collegiate Hockey Association team, again by a three-goal margin — and SMU still managed its first-ever national tournament appearance.

Ryhorchuk likes "the other hand."

"It wasn't a bad effort," said Ryhorchuk, whose team finished with a 38-31 advantage in shots on goal. "There were a lot of positives we can take out of this game — everyone contributed, and for a first game, everyone did a very nice job.

"About the only real negative was the final outcome on the scoreboard."

Kelsey Pew scored a pair of goals for the Yellowjackets, who scored the game's first two goals and held leads of 2-1 after the first period and 4-2 after two. Emily Kearns (Hopkins, Minn.) netted SMU's first goal late in the first period, and Alissa Schultz (LeSueur, Minn.) scored the other on the power play midway through the second period.

"Give Superior a lot of credit — they hung in there and capitalized on the chances that they got," said Ryhorchuk, whose Cardinals outshot the Yellowjackets 19-9 in the game's first 20 minutes, but still trailed 2-1. "Their goalie made some big saves early on to keep (UW-Superior) in the game.

"Everyone knows we've got some things we still need to work on, some mistakes we have to correct, but that's just the first game of the season," Ryhorchuk continued. "There's a lot of hockey yet to be played, we'll come out strong (in the teams' rematch Sunday afternoon) and play a very good game."