Game Summary

WOODBURY, Minn. — Ask any coach, and they'lll tel you that the key to a successful season is to have your team peak at the right time — playoff time.

And the Saint Mary's University women's hockey team — and goalitender Missie Meemken (St. Cloud, Minn.) in particular — did just that.

Unfortunately, the Cardinals' best — and Meemken's in particular — wasn't enough Friday evening, as St. Thomas made a second-period goal stand up in ousting SMU from the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference tournamwent with a 1-0 victory.

"I can't fault our effort — everyone played very well," said Ryhorchuk, whose team closed out its season at 11-10-6 overall. "Missie played great. Usually, when your goaltender can hold an opponent to one goal, you should win.

"Today, we didn't."

Which has been the Cardinals' Achilles' 'heel all season.

Friday's loss was the seventh time this season that the Cardinals have been shut out.

"You have to score goals to win hockey games, and our whole season has been that way — we just didn't score enough goals," said Ryhorchuk. "Defensively, we were solid, but we didn't capitalize on the scoring opportunities we had."

The Cardinals managed just 22 shots on UST goalie Danielle Mikolai, but more than a handful were from point-blank range. None, however, would get past the Tommies' junior goalie.

St. Thomas, meanwhile, pelted Meemken with 28 shots — including 21 in the first two periods combined.

After a scoreless first period, in which UST outshot the Cardinals 10-5, UST finally broke the ice at t he 17-minute mark of the second period as the Tommies' Jenny Sorenson fired a shot past a fallen Meemken.

SMU threatened several times in the third period, but to no avail, as UST picked up its first win in 13 tries against the Cardinals.

"I guess we beat (St. Thomas) at the wrong time," said Ryhorchuk, whose team swept the teams' regular-season meeting this season, beating the Tommies 3-2 and 4-3 in overtime just last weekend. "Obviously, when you play a team three times in the last four games, they pretty much know what you are going to do — just like we knew exactlyf what they were going to do.

"It was a great hockey game, a game neither team really deserved to lose. Unfortunately, we were the ones that did."