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WINONA, Minn. — The Saint Mary's University women's hockey team erupted for five goals — including a hat trick by Nicole Olson (New Brighton, Minn.) — to cruise past St. Norbert 5-3 in a nonconference game Friday night at SMU Ice Arena.

Four of the Cardinals' goals came in the third period — two apiece for Olson and Breanna Peterson (Macomb, Mich.) — for the come from behind win.

“St. Norbert is a very quality team,” said SMU coach Terry Mannor, whose Cardinals had been 0-12-2 when their opponent scored first heading into Friday's contest. “So for them to score first and us to come back from a two goal deficit is huge.”

The Knights' Julia Muscarello scored the only goal in the first period at the 11:30 mark. Danielle Rozon converted for the Knights' second goal 8:45 into the second period to give SNC a 2-0 advantage.

Olson led off the scoring for the Cardinals with an unassisted goal three minutes later to cut the gap to 2-1, but the Knights' Katie Conlon pushed St. Norbert's lead back to two goals, 3-1, with just 20 seconds remaining in the period.

“We talked a lot this season about being strong and being focused,” Mannor said. “We called the timeout halfway through the second period to get them focused. From that point on, I felt that we controlled the game.”

The Cardinals came out strong in the third with a goal by Olson just 2:17 into the period off a pass from Peterson. Olson returned the favor five minutes later, as she fed a pass to Peterson for the game-tying goal.

Olson then completed her hat trick with assistss from Brooke Bartelt (New Prague, Minn.) and Riley Brown (Simi Valley, Calif.) with 10:35 remaining in the game. Peterson closed out the scoring with helpers from Mackenzie Klimek (Hastings, Minn.) and Olson to give the Cardinals – who are 1-1-1 overall – the 5-3 victory.

Altogether, Olson and Peterson combined for eight points on the night.

“I expect that out of them the rest of the year,” Mannor said. “It doesn't surprise me, but they played great.”

The Cardinals play their second of back-to-back home games Saturday at 2 p.m. against Concordia (Wis.) at SMU Ice Arena.