WINONA, Minn. — The Saint Mary's University women's hockey team scored as many goals in the first period as they did in their entire 60 minutes the previous night.
And the Cardinals were just getting warmed up.
After scoring two goals in the game's final 10 minutes to break a 0-0 tie en route to a 2-0 Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference victory over Concordia Friday evening, the Cardinals pumped in two first-period goals in Saturday rematch.
Unlike Friday, however, two goals would not be enough for the Cardinals to sweep the Cobbers, as SMU needed double the offensive output of the previous night — getting a second-period goal from
Brianna Drude (Oakdale, Minn.) and the game-winner off the stick of
Ingrid Klockars (Wheaton, Ill.) midway through the third period to beat Concordia 4-3 at the SMU Ice Arena.
“That was a big sweep for us,” said SMU coach
Terry Mannor. “Concordia is a very good team — a team that has made it to the (conference) playoffs the last couple of years. So for us to come away with a sweep and four conference points is huge.”
Julianne Bartosz (Mokena, Ill.) banged home a loose puck at 14:49 of the first period for her first collegiate goal, giving SMU a 1-0 lead that would last less than four minutes, as Concordia's Emily Sell knotted things up with a short-handed tally at 18:01.
Stevie Fiek (Rochester, Minn.) gave the Cardinals a 2-1 lead before the period ended, netting her third of the season with 11 seconds remaining in the opening stanza.
The Cobbers would again knot things up late in the second period on a goal by Abby Vig — and again, SMU would answer right back on Drude's second of the season less than two minutes later, giving the Cardinals a 3-2 advantage heading into the game's final 20 minutes.
Kerry Blomberg pulled the Cobbers even with her first of the season at 9:37, setting up Klockars' late-game heroics, as the junior forward broke past the Cobber defender and rifled a shot over the glove of Concordia goalie Maddie Haroldson with seven minutes remaining in regulation.
“Our first three goals, they were 1970s-type goals — all scored from scrums three-feet in front of the net,” said Mannor. “That was good to see. We have talked about crashing the net whenver possible and we did that tonight.
“I'm very pleased with our performance tonight,” continued Mannor, who got a 28-save performance from
Kaye Collier (Hibbing, Minn.), who stopped all 23 shots Friday evening for her second shutout of the season. “Concordia kept coming at us, and we never backed down.
“This was a total team effort — a total team win.”
