Game Summary
WINONA, Minn. — Make that three straight — and counting.
The Saint Mary's University women's hockey team racked up its third straight shutout victory Tuesday evening, getting an 18-save performance from Missie Meemken (St. Cloud, Minn.) en route to a 2-0 nonconference win over UW-Eau Claire Tuesday evening at the SMU Ice Arena.
The Cardinals, who blanked St. Olaf 6-0 and 2-0 last weekend, have now gone more than 140 minutes since they last allowed a goal – going all the way back to a late second-period tally in a 3-1 loss to UW-River Falls last Tuesday.
"It wasn't all that pretty, but we'll take the win," said SMU coach Duncan Ryhorchuk, whose team has now won three straight in pushing its record to 9-4-1 overall. "To go three straight games without giving up a goal says alot about the effort of everyone on this team — the goalies, the defensmen and the forwards.
"I don't think (Eau Claire) had any real good scoring opportunities, and that's a credit to the way we've been playing defense," continued Ryhorchuk. "Our plan is pretty simple — we may give up some shots, but they are going to be from the outside, and those are the type of shots our goalies are going to handle easily every time."
After getting the weekend off and watching teammate Nitara Frost (North Mankato, Minn.) blank the Oles on back-to-back days, Meemken wasn't about to miss out as the junior stopped everything the Blugolds could throw at her.
And with Meemken playing the role of the brick wall, all the Cardinals needed to do was score a single goal and the win was theirs.
They scored two.
Missy Westergren (Lonsdale, Minn.) got the Cardinals on the board at the 8:07 mark of the first period as her shot from the left side of the net caromed off a UW-Eau Claire player and past Blugold goalie Tara Berlute. Christy Hicks (Bloomington, Minn.) scored a more conventional goal 10 minutes later as she broke in all alone on Berlute and easily rifled a wrist shot into the upper corner.
"We didn't do anything flashy, but we got the job done," said Ryhorchuk. "The bottom line is, we scored two goals and they didn't score any — which means the 'W' goes to us."
