Box Score Game Summary
WINONA, Minn. — This season has had a little bit of everything for the Saint Mary's University women's hockey team — shutout wins, overtime victories, lopsided losses, winning streaks, losing streaks.
Thursday afternoon, the Cardinals gave SMU coach Duncan Ryhorchuk something just a bit different — a tie.
And not the kind the SMU coach can wear around his neck, either.
The Cardinals got their lone goal off the stick of
Val Rodriguez (Woodbury, Minn.) and
Nikki Jung (Inver Grove Heights, Minn.) — the conference's reigning player of the week — kicked out 36 shots as SMU skated to a 1-1 Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference tie with Bethel at the SMU Ice Arena.
"I thought we played well, certainly well enough to win," said Ryhorchuk. "We did a great job of killing off some questionable penalties in the third period, kept the pressure on — we just couldn't put the puck in the net.
"This was one of those games where the end result isn't really a good tie, and it's not necessarily a bad tie."
On the good side, SMU did pick up a key conference point. And with the race for the five MIAC playoff berths as tight as it is, every point is important.
On the bad side, the Cardinals were outshot 37-19 — including 16-4 in the second period.
After a scoreless first period, the Cardinals got on the board midway through the second period as Rodriguez netted her second goal in as many games, an unassisted tally at 12:16. The lead was short-lived, however, as Bethel's Amy Beitzel picked up a loose puck just inside the blue line and rifled a shot that eluded Jung on the stick side just a minute later.
"The effort is there, I can't find fault in the effort," said Ryhorchuk, whose team has scored one goal in each of its last two games, and just five goals in its last five games. "We just aren't putting the puck on net enough — we're getting clear shots, but then we try and get around one more player, and we lose it. We need to put the puck on net and make (the opponent's) goalie make some saves — that's what teams are doing to us.
"We need to find a way to generate more offense, it's that simple."
