Box Score

Game Summary

WINONA, Minn. — It was supposed to be an easy weekend for the Saint Mary's University women's hockey team — two games against a team that had never played a collegiate varsity women's hockey game before Friday night.

Supposed to be.

The Cardinals got their two wins against the first-year Lions — but it was anything but easy.

SMU held off the pesky Lions 2-1 in Friday's opening game of the two-game nonconference series, then needed overtime — and Melissa Mondo's (Vadnais Heights, Minn.) third goal of the game — to put away Finlandia 4-3 in Saturday's rematch at the SMU Ice Arena.

"I thought we controlled the play a little bit more (Saturday) than we did Friday — especially in the second period," said SMU coach Duncan Ryhorchuk, whose team outshot the Lions 21-6 in the second period to take a 2-1 lead into the third period. "Their goalie (Katie Markovich) played well, and we didn't convert on some chances.

"I was pleased with the effort, it was a much better all-around effort today, and, fortunately, we were able to come away with another win."

Escape with another win is more like it.

"We've got a lot of work to do," admitted Ryhorchuk. "On a scale of 1-to-10, I'd give us a six. This was a weekend series that, on paper, should have been easy for us — we were supposed to win these games. But I don't think anyone expected we would have had to work this hard to get those two wins."

Finlandia got on the board first, as Stephanie Emmi netted the first of her two goals with 43 seconds remaining in the period to give the Lions a 1-0 advantage. Mondo — the hero of Friday's 2-1 win, scoring both SMU goals — tied things up five minutes into the second period, and Aja Walters (Fairmont, Minn.) gave SMU a 2-1 lead six minutes later.

Mondo added her second of the game midway through the third period, and it appeared like the Cardinals would be able to put their game on cruise control.

The Lions, however, had other ideas.

Emmi scored her second and Danielle Syrowik tallied her first of the season just over a minute apart late in the third period to send the game into overtime — where Mondo again took center stage, completing her first career hat trick just 1:27 into the extra period.

"It's nice to come away with two wins, no matter who you are playing," said Ryhorchuk. "Obviously, we didn't win these games the way we expected to, but the bottom line is, we still got the win."