Game Summary

WINONA, Minn. — When the Saint Mary's University women's hockey team entered its Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference series against Bethel, their hopes of qualifying for the conference's post-season tournament were precariously close to being on life support.

With three MIAC series remaining, the Cardinals found themselves in a three-way tie for fourth place.

With two MIAC series remaining, the Cardinals are no longer on life support — in fact, their playoff hopes are alive and well.

Thanks in part to the goaltending tandem of Nikki Jung (Inver Grove Heights, Minn.) and Amanda Gage (Lino Lakes, Minn.).

Jung pitched a shutout, stopping 26 shots in Wednesday's 3-0 win. Not to be outdone, Gage completed the Cardinal sweep by stopping all 13 shots she faced in leading SMU to a 5-0 victory Friday evening at the SMU Ice Arena.

"Both of our goalies have been playing well all season, and they both were strong again (against Bethel)," said SMU coach Duncan Ryhorchuk, whose team improved to 8-6-0 in the MIAC and 11-7-1 overall. "Nikki was solid Wednesday, and we expected the same type of effort from Amanda (Friday night). She didn't face as many shots (as Jung did), but she did a nice job handling the ones she did face."

And with Jung and Gage doing their part, the rest seemed to come easy for the Cardinals, who nearly scored as many goals in their series vs. Bethel (nine), as they had in their previous seven games combined.

"Breaking out of our scoring slump was another big boost," said Ryhorchuk, who got a goal and three assists from both Emily Kearns (Hopkins, Minn.) and Melissa Mondo (Vadnais Heights, Minn.) in Friday's win. "We were struggling a bit to score goals, but I think with these last two games, we proved to ourselves we can still put the puck in the net."

The Cardinals were certainly dead-on early Friday, as Aja Walters (Fairmont, Minn.) and Emily Babcock (St. Paul, Minn.) scored on SMU's first two shots on goal, giving the Cardinals a 2-0 lead just 2:40 into the opening period.

Kearns and Katie Berg (Apple Valley, Minn.) added second-period tallies, and Mondo closed out the scoring with her goal midway through the third period.

"We talked coming into this (series) about what we needed to do to make the playoffs," explained Ryhorchuk. "We figured we needed to come up with nine points in our final three series. We accomplished Step 1, and I think we've set ourselves up nicely heading into the St. Olaf series (next weekend)."