Box Score Game Summary
WINONA, Minn. — After suffering through a 6-1 loss Friday night at the University of St. Thomas, the Saint Mary's University women's hockey team knew it would take a solid effort Saturday to pull out a win over the Tommies at the SMU Ice Arena.
With leading scorer
Melissa Mondo (Vadnais Heights, Minn.) — -who has only played in three games to date for the Cardinals — still off the ice due to injury, the Cardinals couldn't match seven UST goals in their second shutout loss of the season.
"St. Thomas is a very good team- — they proved that Friday night- — and we needed to play our best (on Saturday) in order to win," said SMU coach Duncan Ryhorchuk, whose team managed just seven shots on goal in the 7-0 loss. "Unfortunately for us, once they scored a couple goals, we started to crumble —as soon as we fell behind, we lacked any sort of confidence."
SMU (2-4-0 MIAC, 4-6-0 overall) was outshot 37-7 and was barely able to keep the puck on its offensive side of the ice, as UST (5-0-1, 6-1-1) fired off a total of 62 shot attempts to the Cardinals' 17.
The Tommies opened the first period with three goals — scored by Maria Richardson, Melanie Drake and Sue Heinmiller, respectively — taking advantage of two powerplay opportunities.
Richardson added another three minutes into the second period, and Drake — not wanting to be left out- — did the same one minute into the third period to give the Tommies a comfortable 5-0 cushion.
Down by five with 19 minutes left in regulation, a comeback became less and less of a reality for SMU, and the next best answer was to defend and make the loss the least painful as possible.
It was a good plan, but the plan fell through, and the Tommies went on to make things much worse for the Cardinals.
UST went on to net two more — one from freshman Holly Noble and another from Tanaya Reitz- — handing the Cardinals the most goals they given up in one game all season.
"Now it's time for everyone to rest up and enjoy three weeks off," Ryhorchuk said, noting SMU does not play again until Jan. 7 at 7:05 p.m. when the Cardinals travel to Eau Claire. "Injuries have been keeping a few athletes off the ice, so the break will be a positive for us — it'll give us time to rest up."
