Box Score

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0		5

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WINONA, Minn. — Their hopes of an eighth straight Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference playoff berth were slim heading into Saturday's conference game against St. Thomas.

They're even slimmer now.

The Saint Mary's University women's hockey team saw its losing streak climb to four straight, as the Tommies scored two goals in the second period and three more in the third en route to a 5-0 victory at the SMU Ice Arena.

"We did not come to play, plain and simple," said SMU coach Terry Mannor, whose Cardinals were outshot 38-16 — including 25-9 through two periods. "I thought we played very well (on Friday) and didn't have anything to show for our efforts, but tonight, we didn't play well at all — we couldn't seem to do anything right out there."

With the loss, the Cardinals fall to 5-10-1 in the MIAC and remain stuck in seventh place, three points behind Hamline and Bethel with just two games  remaining in the regular season.

If SMU is to make it eight straight post-season appearances, the Cardinals must sweep their two-game series against Augsburg and hope their new best friends St. Catherine and Saint Benedict can sweep Bethel and Hamline. If that happens, St. Catherine would land the fourth playoff spot and the Cardinals would move into the No. 5 slot.

A split in any of the three series, and the Cardinals will be on the outside looking in when the post-season begins.

"I don't know what the problem was tonight," admitted Mannor. "We didn't play all that well in the first period, but we hung in there and came away tied (0-0 after the first 20 minutes). But things just went from bad to worse from there — we struggled in get anything going in the second period, and the third peirod was just a disaster."

Kara Ledel gave the Tommies all the offense they would need, breaking that 0-0 stalemate with her 10th goal of the season midway through the second period. Alicia Behr would make it 2-0 before the period would end, and Marie Omann would add a pair of third-period goals and Becca Reardon would tack on one more, as St. Thomas beat the Cardinals for the ninth time in the teams' last 10 meetings.

"We've got one more weekend to try and put it all together," said Mannor. "Hopefully we can find a way to do just that."