Box Score

	vs.
1		3

Game Summary / GameDay Online

WINONA, Minn. — The Saint Mary's University and Gustavus women's hockey teams had already squared off twice heading into Saturday's contest at the SMU Ice Arena.

In those first two meetings, the Gusties held SMU to just one goal — a first-period, Game 1 tally by Cassie Stoner (Kenosha, Wis.) — as GAC rolled to wins of 6-1 and 6-0.

Unfortunately for the Cardinals, the third time was anything but a charm, as Gustavus made SMU its 11th straight victim with a 3-1 victory.

There was, however, a silver lining for coach Terry Mannor and his Cardinals — this game had no affect on the conference standings.

"It was a good news, bad news kind of game," said Mannor. "The bad news was, we couldn't find a way to slow (Gustavus) down — they are such a good team. The good news was, because this was one of those rare nonconference games between conference opponents, it won't hurt us in the conference standings — or in our quest for one of those (MIAC) playoff spots."

After a scoreless first period, in which Gustavus outshot the Cardinals 10-4, the Gusties finally broke the ice, outshooting SMU 14-1 over the game's middle period — and netting back-to-back goals three minutes apart midway through the stanza  to grab a commanding 2-0 advantage.

The Cardinals finally snapped their scoreless string against the Gusties — with their two second-period goals, GAC had netted 14 unanswered tallies in the teams' three meetings — and, ironically, it was Stoner who did the damage, as the Cardinal sophomore netted her second of the season two minutes into the third period to cut the gap to 2-1.

Gustavus' Mari Gunderson answered two minutes later, as the Gusties regained their two-goal cushion and cruised to the win.

"I thought we played pretty well — (Gustavus) is so talented, both offensively and defensively, we just weren't able to generate much out there," said Mannor, whose team was outshot 32-11 in losing to the Gusties for the 15th straight time. "Nobody likes to lose, but there were a lot of positives we can take away from a game like this."

Emily Friedl (La Crescent, Minn.) kicked out 29 shots for the Cardinals, who fall to 2-8-1 overall and return to conference play on Friday, playing host to Hamline in a 7:05 p.m. contest.