ST. PETER, Minn. — One-goal games have been the special on the Saint Mary's University women's hockey team's menu of late.
The Cardinals found themselves in the midst of their 15th one-goal game of the season — and third in as many meetings against Gustavus — Saturday afternoon at GAC's Don Roberts Ice Arena.
Unfortunately for the Cardinals, the third one-goal game against the Gusties ended the same way as the previous two — with a loss, as Tam Meuwissen scored the game's only goal four minutes into the first period in lifting Gustavus to a 1-0 Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference victory.
“We just can't seem to get over the hump when we play (Gustavus),” said SMU coach
Terry Mannor. “I thought we played a pretty good game — especially defensively — we just weren't able to generate enough offense.”
Kaye Collier (Hibbing, Minn.), who kicked out a career-high 42 shots in Friday's 3-2 loss to the Gusties at the SMU Ice Arena, saw her career save mark last less than 24 hours, as the freshman stopped 47 GAC shots on Saturday — including the last 42 shots she faced.
“Kaye played great,” Mannor said. “I thought we did a good job of not giving them too many really good scoring chances, but 47 saves, that's a good day's work.”
Meuwissen got the Gusties on the board at 3:55 of the opening period, beating Collier with GAC's fifth shot of the period.
From there, Collier was unbeatable, but SMU's offense did not have an answer, managing just eight shots on goal in falling to the Gusties for the second straight day and third time this season.
With the loss, SMU falls to 8-7-1 in conference play at 11-11-1 overall. Despite the setback, the Cardinals remain one point ahead of Concordia for the fifth and final MIAC playoff spot, and two points behind St. Olaf for the No. 4 spot. The Cardinals close out the season with back-to-back games against St. Olaf next weekend. A win and a Cobber loss vs. St. Thomas would guarantee SMU a spot in the five-team conference playoff.
“It's all going to come down to one weekend,” said Mannor of his team's playoff hopes. “Hopefully we can get our offense on track.”
