Game Summary

ST. PETER, Minn. — In their brief, three-year existence — a span of 78 games — the Saint Mary's University women's hockey team has lost two games in a row only three times.

And they aren't about to make it four.

Yet, to avoid that dreaded two-game losing streak — and elimination from the post-season — the Cardinals will need a better effort than they displayed Friday evening, when they dropped a 4-2 decision to Gustavus in the MIAC playoff championship series

The Gusties raced to a 4-0 advantage, scoring twice in each of the first two periods before the Cardinals made things interesting with back-to-back goals eight minutes apart before the second period ended.

Kirsten Olson got the Gusties on the board at the 13:06 mark of the first period, and, two minutes later, Sarah Moe made it 2-0.

Just 19 seconds into the second period, the Cardinals found themselves staring at a 3-0 deficit as Kenzie Stensland beat SMU goalie Missie Meemken (St. Cloud, Minn.). Nicole Guimond pushed GAC's cushion to 4-0 on the powerplay at the 2:01 mark of the second stanza.

The Cardinals finally got on the board at the 8:34 mark of the second period as Kelly O'Neil (Richfield, Minn.) beat Gustavus goalie Molly O'Donnell. Missy Westergren (Lonsdale, Minn.) closed the gap to two, 4-2, with her 22nd goal of the year eight minutes later, but that was as close as SMU would get.

The Cardinals (21-6-0) must now beat Gustavus in the teams' rematch tonight (5 p.m.) and then win the "mini-game" in order to secure the conference's automatic berth in the AWHCA national tournament. Should Gustavus complete the sweep and grab the automatice berth, SMU could still reach the national tournament as one of two at-large berths.