WINONA, Minn. — If the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference playoff picture appeared a little cloudy heading into the final weekend of the regular season, the Saint Mary's University women's hockey team cleared up a few things Friday evening.
In fact, the Cardinals made things crystal-clear — win and they are in.
Fueled by Friday's 1-1 conference tie against St. Olaf at the SMU Ice Arena, the Cardinals remained two points behind the Oles for the fourth seed in the upcoming conference playoffs.
More importantly, the one point earned through the overtime tie kept SMU in the driver's seat for the fifth and final playoff spot. The Cardinals enter Saturday's rematch against the Oles sitting in a fifth-place tie with Bethel — 3-2 overtime winners over Hamline Friday — in the conference standings, and a win over St. Olaf would lock up an invitation to the MIAC's post-season party.
No matter what Bethel does in its regular-season finale vs. Hamline.
“We knew coming into the weekend that we needed three points, and we got the one point out of the way tonight,” said SMU coach
Terry Mannor, whose team has now played five straight games decided by one goal or less. “We know what's at stake (Saturday) and we just need to go out there and play the way we did in the third period.
“If we can play like that for the entire 60 minutes, we should be pleased with the outcome.”
St. Olaf jumped out in front late in the first period, as Kim McClintick netted her 12th goal of the season, beating SMU goalie
Kaye Collier (Hibbing, Minn.) on a nifty backhander with 1:13 remaining.
After a scoreless second period, the Cardinals came to life, as Steve Fiek (Rochester, Minn.) banged home a
Nicole Olson (New Brighton, Minn.) rebound to pull SMU even.
The Cardinals dominated the third period and overtime, outshooting St. Olaf 13-11 in the third and 4-0 in the OT, but could only muster Fiek's early third-period tally.
“Offensively, we had a ton of good chances, we just couldn't put the puck in the net,” said Mannor. “I'm happy with the way we played after the first period. We controlled the play pretty well (in the last two periods), we just weren't able to convert on the chances.
“We control our own destiny,” Mannor added. “We just have to go out there and play the way we are capable of playing. If we do that, we should be just fine.”
