NORTHFIELD, Minn. — A three-game winning streak … Three straight three-goal goals … Three straight games scoring two goals in the first period.

Good things have been coming in threes for the Saint Mary's University women's hockey team.

Fives, on the other hand, haven't been nearly as kind.

The Cardinals, bidding for their first four-game winning streak since the middle of last season, gave up five goals in Saturday's rematch against St. Olaf — and scored just once — as the Oles rolled to a 5-1 Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference victory.

"It was one of those games where, we played with a lot of energy, but we didn't play as a team," said SMU coach Terry Mannor. "We came out and played extremely well for the first four minutes of the first period — I don't think the puck left their zone.

"But then they came down and scored their first goal, and it just deflated us."

It was the Oles' Lindsey Boeser who burst the Cardinals' first-period balloon, getting St. Olaf on the board at 6:29 of the first period. Kayla Hill would make it 2-0 before the first period ended, and St. Olaf would add three unanswered powerplay goals — one in the second and two in the third — before SMU finally got on the board with Melissa Mondo's (Vadnais Heights, Minn.) team-leading 12th goal of the season with 19 seconds remaining in regulation.

"St. Olaf is a very good good team, and they were much more relaxed and in control than we were," said Mannor, who had gotten a pair of goals from Amy Madden (East Grand Rapids, Mich.) — including the game-winner with less than six minutes remaining in regulation in Friday's 3-2 win over the Oles. "We played much more as a team (on Friday) and that was the key to our success.

"Once we fell behind (Saturday), every started trying to do too much themselves, rather than working together to get the job done," added Mannor, whose team dropped to 7-6-1 in the MIAC and fell to fifth in the MIAC standings, three points in front of next weekend's opponent — Bethel. "It would have been nice to get the sweep, but I'll take one out of two against a team like that.

"We've still got a lot of work ahead of us if we want to get back to the conference tournament, hopefully everyone is up to the challenge."