RIVER FALLS, Wis. — The Saint Mary's University women's hockey team played its first game of the season Friday evening — and it showed.

The Cardinals, still trying to shake off some of the rust from a long off-season, made their fair share of mistakes in their nonconference season-opening against UW-River Falls..

But they also had their fair share of bright spots — the brightest of which was the career-high 50-save effort by SMU goalie Nikki Jung (Inver Grove Heights, Minn.).

Thanks in large part to Jung's stellar play, the Cardinals' good play/bad play performance against the Falcons resulted in a 2-2 tie.

"A tie is just what we deserved — at times we were good, and at times, we weren't so good," said SMU coach Terry Mannor. "We played well enough to win, but we also made our share of mistakes.

"I'd say a tie is about what we deserved."

After playing 40 minutes of scoreless hockey — with Jung kicking out 29 shots thought two periods, while SMU's offense managed just 10 — the Cardinals broke the ice a minute into the third period, as Melissa Mondo (Vadnais Heights, Minn.) notched her first goal of the season.

Midway through the period, UW-River Falls evened the score, finally finding a crack in Jung's brick wall on a goal by Cassie LeBlanc at the 10:30 mark. SMU regained the lead on Amy Madden's (East Grand Rapids., Mich.) first of the season at 18:11, but the Falcons once again had the equalizer — this time scoring a powerplay goal just 44 seconds after Madden's tally.

"You have to give Nikki a ton of credit, she played outstanding," said Mannor of his senior goalie. "She kept us in the game, especially in the first two periods when we needed her most.

"We played like it was our first game of the season — we made a lot of mental errors and a lot of people a the first-game jitters," said Mannor, whose team is back in action Tuesday, opening its home schedule with a nonconference game against UW-Eau Claire. "I thought we worked very hard tonight, and I think we proved to ourselves that when we work hard — from start to finish — we can play with anyone."