Game Summary
ST PAUL, Minn. — In each of their last three games, the Saint Mary's University women's hockey team has only needed to score one goal to come away with a victory.
That's because the Cardinals had hopped on the shoulders of goaltenders Missie Meemken (St. Cloud, Minn.) and Nitara Frost (North Mankato, Minn.) and went along for the ride as SMU rolled to shutout wins of 6-0 and 2-0 over St. Olaf and 2-0 against UW-Eau Claire.
Hamline knew all about the Cardinals' stingy defense, but the Pipers weren't impressed, as they not only broke SMU's three-game shutout streak, but they did so just 1:43 into the first period of Saturday's Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference game.
Problem is, while the Pipers may have done something St. Olaf and Eau Claire couldn't , that is, find a way to turn the red light on behind an SMU goalie, they weren't able to solve what proved to be a much larger problem — how to stop the Cardinals' high-powered offense.
After giving up the early first-period goal, the Cardinals erupted for 10 unanswered goals en route to a 10-1 victory.
"We really came out sluggish in the first period," said SMU coach Duncan Ryhorchuk, whose team extended its winning streak to four straight in improving to 8-2-0 in the MIAC and 10-4-1 overall. "That first period was definitely not one of the better periods we've played this year."
But the second and the third sure were.
"I think the first period was a bit of a wake-up call for us," admitted Ryhorchuk, whose team got goals from Emily Kearns (Hopkins, Minn.) and Christy Hicks (Bloomington, Minn.) two minutes apart late in the first period to take a 2-1 advantage into the first-period intermission. "Once we got things going, I thought we play very well. That second period we were just flying out there. We were unstoppable."
Just ask Hamline goalie Emily Krinhop.
Krinhop faced 20 shots in the second period alone, including goals from Tasa Kostel (Rochester, Minn.), Beth Zubrzycki (South St. Paul, Minn.), Kearns, Josie Nechodom (Oakdale, Minn.), Kate Williams (Minnetonka, Minn.) and Missy Westergren (Lonsdale, Minn.).
The Cardinals' offensive barrage carried over into the third period as well, as SMU pelted Krinhop with 11 more shots, including goals from Hicks and Jaimie Mussehl (South St. Paul, Minn.).
"(The Fairgrounds Coliseum) is a tough place to play — but that's no excuse for the way we came out to start the game," admitted Ryhorchuk, whose team will put its four-game win streak on the line this afternoon when the Cardinals and Pipers square off for the second game of the two-game conference series. "I wasn't very happy with our performance in that first period, but hopefully we got that out of our system. We need to find a way to play like we did in the second and third periods for an entire game."
