Game Summary
WINONA, Minn. — When the Saint Mary's and St. Olaf women's hockey teams squared off last year, the Cardinals outscored the Oles 22-0 and outshot them 144-7 en route to wins of 10-0 and 12-0.
It's been a year since then — and nothing's changed.
Friday evening at the SMU Ice Arena, the Cardinals picked up right where they left off, outshooting St. Olaf 47-5 — including 19-0 in the second period — en route to a 6-0 Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference victory.
"I was pleased with the way we played, but I'm still a little concerned that we are not capitalized on our chances as much as we should," said SMU coach Duncan Ryhorchuk, whose team improved to 6-2-1 in the MIAC and 7-2-1 overall with the win. "We came out a little flat in the first period, but once we got things rolling, I thought we played pretty well."
The Cardinals pelted St. Olaf goalie Kerry Rollwagon with 13 shots in the first period, but the two teams were still deadlocked, 0-0, when the first-period horn sounded. In fact were it not for a pair of stellar glove saves from SMU goalie Nitara Frost (North Mankato, Minn.), the Oles may have taken a one- or two-goal lead into the locker room after one.
"Nitara made a couple of big saves in the first period," praised Ryhorchuk of his junior goalkeeper, who improved her career record to 14-0-0 with the five-save shutout. "She actually kept us in the game early."
The Cardinals gave Frost the second period off, dominating play with a pair of goals — the first a shorthanded tally by Christy Hicks (Bloomington, Minn.) at 12:44) and the second three minutes later by Aja Walters (Fairmont, Minn.) — and that 19-0 shots-on-goal advantage.
The Cardinals' offense then took over in the third period as Tasa Kostel (Rochester, Minn.) and Beth Zubrzycki (South St. Paul, Minn.) netted goals in the period's first two minutes and Laura Wyness (Chicago, Ill.) and Sarah Gibbons (Orland Park, Ill.) scored in the final seven minutes to ice the victory.
"Our goal right now is to continue to create the offensive opportunities, and hopefully, capitalize on a few more of them," said Ryhorchuk. "We're playing very well, we just need to keep plugging away."
