Box Score Game Summary vs. Gustavus /
GameDay Online
NEW ULM, Minn. — After opening the season with three straight nonconference games, Saint Mary's University women's hockey coach
Terry Mannor was looking forward to seeing how his team stacked up against other teams in the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.
Friday evening, Mannor got his wish, as the Cardinals kicked off their conference schedule with the first of two games against Gustavus.
Five-time defending MIAC champion and seventh-ranked Gustavus.
The measuring stick doesn't get much higher than that.
And when the Cardinals played up to their abilities, they matched the high-powered and nationally ranked Gusties stride-for-stride.
When they didn't, however, the Gusties made them pay, as Gustavus took advantage of SMU's inconsistency to hand the Cardinals a 4-1 setback.
“At times, we played very well — in fact, I felt we played every bit as well as (Gustavus) at times,” said Mannor, whose team saw its winless streak against Gustavus climb to 16 straight (0-15-1), dating back to the 2001-02 season, when the Cardinals knocked off the Gusties 2-1 in the championship game of the MIAC Tournament. “The problem was, there were too many times where we got caught coasting around and just watching — and when that happened, (Gustavus) was all over us.”
The Gusties got goals from Melissa Mackley and Mari Gunderson in the opening period, then pushed that advantage to 3-0 with their second powerplay goal of the evening two minutes into the second stanza.
Alex Braun (Darwin, Minn.) got the Cardinals on the board with her second goal of the season at 3:22 of the second, but GAC pushed its lead back to three, 4-1, less than three minutes later on Allie Schwab's first of the season.
Emily Friedl (La Crescent, Minn.) stopped 31 shots for the Cardinals, including 15 in the third period, while GAC goalie Danielle Justice faced just 13 shots, stopping 12.
“We had our moments where we outplayed them,” said Mannor, whose team will get another shot at the Gusties Saturday, when the teams square off in a 4 p.m. conference game at the SMU Ice Arena. “The difference was, every shift, all five (Gustavus) players were working as hard as they could.
“That's where we need to get to — 100 percent effort, every shift,” Mannor added. “This game was a bit of an eye-opener for our team, hopefully they learned a valuable lesson, too.”
