Game Summary

ST. PETER, Minn. — All season long, the Saint Mary's University women's hockey team has been notorious for saving their best for the third period.

"Keep the game close until the third period and the Cardinals will have a chance to win," was Coach Duncan Ryhorchuk's motto.

And Tuesday evening's NCAA Division III national tournament play-in game against Gustavus was no different.

After getting outshot 30-14 through the game's first two periods, the Cardinals turned up the heat in the third, outshooting the Gusties 6-5 — including back-to-back-to-back point-blank shots from Christy Hicks (Bloomington, Minn.), Beth Zubrzycki (South St. Paul) and Jaimie Mussehl (South St. Paul).

Unfortunately, this time around, the Cardinals' best 20 minutes wasn't good enough as Gustavus — behind a first-period goal from Bobee Jo Lang and an empty-netter by MIAC Player of the Year Sarah Moe — ousted the Cardinals 2-0 at the Don Roberts Ice Arena.

"It was a game that went pretty much as we expected — we knew it was going to be a battle right to the end," said Gustavus coach Mike Carroll, whose team advances to Friday's NCAA Final Four and will face top-seeded Elmira in the 6:30 p.m. game. Bowdoin, a 2-1 winner over defending national champ Middlebury, will face Manhattanville in Friday's other semifinal at 3 p.m. "We thought that if we could use our strengths to our advantage, that we might be able to score some goals. But Saint Mary's is a strong, physical team with a great goaltender and they gave us all we could handle."

The Gusties dominated the first period, outshooting the Cardinals 14-8 — including 11-1 to start the game.

With SMU's Monica Deringer in the penalty box for roughing, the Gusties finally found a way to beat Cardinal goalie Missie Meemken (St. Cloud, Minn.), as Katie Deschneau won the face-off back to Lang, whose wrist shot from the slot beat a screened Meemken to the stick side.

"They had a lot of shots in both the first and second periods, but I didn't think we gave them many good scoring opportunities," admitted Ryhorchuk. "Unfortunately, they capitalized on one of them and made it stand up."

The Gusties threatened to make it 2-0 just over a minute later, but Kenzie Stensland's tip of an Ellen Doyle shot hit the crossbar. SMU's best chance came at the 13-minute mark of the period, but Jaimie Mussehl (South St. Paul, Minn.) was stopped by GAC goalie Molly O'Donnell.

The Gusties' offensive dominance continued in the second period, as GAC held a commanding 16-5 advantage in shots on goal. Meemken, however, was up to the challenge, stopping everything the Gusties threw at her — including a point-blank shots from Sarah Moe, Leah Erickson and Stenzland.

But then came the third period — and the Cardinals' patented offensive onslaught.

Of their six third-period shots, three came from point-blank range, where Hicks was denied from just off the right post, Zubrzycki was stymied on a slap shot from the slot and Mussehl failed on a rebound right in front.

O'Donnell, who watched from the bench last weekend as freshman Anne Kautzer got the nod in both games of the MIAC playoffs — including last Saturday's 2-1 loss to SMU in the title game — finished with 20 saves for the shutout.

"Molly has ice in her veins — she's played in big games before and I knew she'd get the job done for us tonight," explained Carroll of the move to start O'Donnell over Kautzer in the Gusties' biggest game of the year. "She came up with some big saves, especially in the third period."

And with O'Donnell doing her part, the Gusties were able to hold off the Cardinals' third-period charge, and got a boost when Moe picked up a loose puck near center ice, skated across the blue line and fired a perfect strike into the middle of the Cardinals' empty net to seal the win.

"In a game like that, you don't get a lot of great scoring chances, and when you do, you have to make the most of them," said Ryhorchuk, whose team had its 10-game winning streak snapped and finished the season with a 21-6-1 overall record. "I thought in both the second and third periods, who controlled the tempo of the game and had some good chances that, in previous games, went in.

"Tonight, they didn't."