WINONA, Minn. — The Saint Mary's University women's hockey team returns home for the second game of its two-game MIAC series against St. Thomas on Saturday. Puck drops at 4 p.m. at the SMU Ice Arena.





The Matchup:
Saint Mary's Cardinals (4-2-3 MIAC / 7-6-3 Overall)
St. Thomas Tommies (7-1-1 MIAC / 8-5-2 Overall)

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Last Night:
The Tommies scored two goals in each of the first two periods and never let the Cardinals' offense get on track, as UST handed SMU a 4-1 conference setback at the St. Thomas Ice Arena in Mendota Heights, Minn.

A Year Ago:
January 29, 2010: One mistake in the third period, proved to be the Cardinals' downfall, as St. Thomas scored a powerplay goal five minutes into the third period to break a 1-1 tie and lift the Tommies to a 2-1 conference win over SMU at the St. Thomas Ice Arena in Mendota Heights, Minn.

January 30, 2010: The Tommies scored three goals in the third period, erasing a 3-1 Cardinal lead and lifting UST to a 4-3 victory at the SMU Ice Arena.

Up Next:
The Cardinals are home for their second straight game on Friday, hosting Augsburg in a 7 p.m. contest at the SMU Ice Arena. The same two teams will then square off in Minneapolis, Minn., on Saturday at 7:05 p.m. St. Thomas, meanwhile, opens its MIAC series against St. Olaf on the road Friday at 7:30 p.m. in Northfield, Minn., before returning home for the 2 p.m. rematch at the St. Thomas Ice Arena.

Saint Mary's Cardinals News and Notes:
With their 4-1 loss at St. Thomas, the Cardinals are still winless on Friday's in conference play, falling to 0-2-3. … Haley Coolsaet (Grosse Island, Mich.) scored her team-leading seventh goal of the season to account for SMU's lone tally vs. St. Thomas Friday. … Coolsaet recorded her first collegiate hat trick on Nov. 13 — scoring all three goals in the third period of SMU's 5-2 win over Concordia. … Five of Coolsaet's seven goals have come in two games. The freshman forward recorded her first collegiate multiple-goal game with two goals in SMU's season-opening 5-0 win over Marian on Oct. 29. … Nicole Olson (New Brighton, Minn.) has scored in three of the team's last five games. The Cardinal junior has four goals on the season and a team-leading 13 points. … Olson also leads the team in assists (9). … Olson is one of three Cardinals with 10 or more points — Erin Stenseth (Eau Claire Wis.) and Coolsaet are the other two, boasting 11 and 10 points, respectively. … Eighteen of the Cardinals' 37 goals this season have come from freshmen. … SMU has now been held to one goal or less in five of its last six games. … Goalie Kaye Collier (Hibbing, Minn.) — who finished with 24 saves to earn her team-leading sixth win of the season last Saturday against Bethel — stopped 29 St. Thomas shots Friday evening. … Collier enters Saturday's game vs. St. Thomas with a 1.96 goals-against-average and a .925 save percentage, while Sarah Gustafson (Esko, Minn.) has a 2.28 GAA and a .943 save percentage. … SMU has scored first in eight of its 16 games, going 7-0-1. SMU is 0-6-2 when its opponent scores first. … The Cardinals opened the season with three straight wins. SMU's 3-0-0 start was its first since going 4-0-0 to open the 1999-2000 season — the program's second year of existence | 2010-2011 Overall Statistics

St. Thomas Tommies News and Notes:
The Tommies pushed their winning streak to three straight with Friday's win over Saint Mary's. … The Tommies — thanks in part to St. Catherine's 2-1 win over Gustavus on Friday — enters today's game at Saint Mary's atop the MIAC standings. … With their 4-1 win over SMU Friday, the Tommies have now held their opponents to one goal or less in all eight of their wins. … On the flip side, UST has scored just five goals combined in its other seven games (five losses and two ties). … UST has been shutout twice — 1-0 vs. Gustavus and 3-0 vs. UW-Superior, while the Tommies' have recorded four shutout victories — including three by the same 4-0 score. … Kaylee Keys and Jamie Tiede each scored their team-leading sixth goal of the season Friday, while Jaci Lang and Christine Rozeske netted their first goals of the season to account for UST's other two goals vs. Saint Mary's Friday. … Lang, Korinne O'Connor and Taylor Schluter all share the team's lead in assists with five, while Keys' nine points are also a team high. The Tommies' 33 goals have come from 15 different players, while 19 of the team's 21 players have recorded at least one point. … The Tommies have used three different goalies this season — Alise Riedel, Nicole Muske and Liz Maidl — with the trio combining to post a 1.38 goals-against-average and a .934 save percentage. … The Tommies lead all college hockey in penalty kill kills at .968, and have killed 63 of their last 64 penalties. They have allowed just 20 powerplay goals in 15 games. … UST has outscored its opponents 9-4 in the first period. … UST is 8-1-2 when scoring first, but the Tommies are still searching for their first win (0-4-0) when their opponent scores first. … St. Thomas is 51-14-5 against MIAC opponents over the last four season | 2010-2011 Overall Statistics