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WINONA, Minn. — After battling St. Catherine to a 2-2 overtime tie on Friday, Saint Mary's University women's hockey coach Terry Mannor expected more of the same when the two teams met again Saturday at the SMU Ice Arena.

What Mannor didn't expect, however, was that the Wildcats' potent power-play would derail his Cardinals, as St. Catherine converted on two of its five man-advantage opportunities — with both goals coming in the second period — as SCU handed SMU a 3-1 Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference setback.

“I thought we played very well in spurts,” said Mannor, whose team suffered its first conference loss of the season in fall to 1-1-2 in MIAC play. “We played very well over the last 10 minutes of the first period, and we were very good in the third period.

“We just had a bit of a lapse in the second period, and (St. Catherine) took advantage.”

After a scoreless first period, the Wildcats broke the ice on Kasey Evans' team-leading seventh goal of the season on the power-play at 2:50. Eight minutes later, St. Catherine struck again — and again it was on the power-play — as Bridget Braastad netted her first of the season, beating a screened SMU goalie Sarah Gustafson (Esko, Minn.) with a wrist shot from just inside the blueline.

St. Catherine made it 3-0 16 minutes into the final period, before SMU finally got on the board when Mary DeBartolo (Chicago, Ill.) tallied her first collegiate goal with less than three minutes remaining in regulation.

“It's always tough to lose, but I was proud of how hard everyone played right up to the final whistle,” said Mannor. “It's early in the season and there are plenty of things we need to work on — we need to start playing a bit more consistent, we can't afford to have so many highs and lows.”

The Cardinals (1-1-2 MIAC, 2-3-3 overall) are back in action on Dec. 2, hosting St. Olaf in a 7 p.m. game at the SMU Ice Arena.