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WINONA, Minn. — The Saint Mary's University women's hockey team got off to an amazing start in their Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference game against St. Olaf Friday evening, as the Cardinals erupted four first-period goals against St. Olaf at SMU Ice Arena.

Unfortunately for the Cardinals, their offense went into hibernation over the final 40 minutes, as the Oles played the part of the comeback kids, scoring four unanswered goals — including the final one in overtime ¬— to hand SMU a 5-4 setback.

“We have to learn that every game is a dogfight,” coach Terry Mannor said. “Every shift is important, because on three of their goals, we messed up in our coverage — and we can't be doing that.

“We have to learn to play 60 [minutes] and compete.”

The Cardinals started the game off with three straight goals. The first came 6:43 into the game off the stick of Erin Stenseth (Eau Claire, Wis.) with an assist by Alex Braun (Darwin, Minn.).

Brooke Bartelt (New Prague, Minn.) gave the Cardinals the 2-0 advantage with helpers from Haley Coolsaet (Grosse Island, Mich.) and Nicole Olson (New Brighton, Minn.) at the 13:07 mark. Just under a minute later, Lauren Brokowski (St. Charles, Minn.) found the back of the net with an assist from Julianne Bartosz (Mokena, Ill.).

St. Olaf got on the scoreboard with 31 seconds remaining in the first period with a goal by Taylor Orr, but the Cardinals answered quickly just 17 seconds later as Mary DeBartolo (Chicago, Ill.) tallied a goal unassisted and gave the Cardinals a 4-1 lead after one period of play.

The Oles took over from there, scoring three unanswered goals — two in the second and one in the third — before icing the win on a goal by Tara Reyelts with 37 seconds remaining in OT.

“We've been scored on 23 times now and 14 of those have been in the second period,” said Mannor, whose team was whistled for five straight penalties in the game's middle period. “So we have to collectively somehow figure out how we have that letdown in the second.”

“(Those penalties) gave (St. Olaf) the momentum,” Mannor said. “In the second period, there were five straight penalties against us — that's where they got all of their momentum.”

The Cardinals — who dropped to 1-1-3 in the MIAC and 2-3-4 overall — travel to the Northfield (Minn.) Ice Arena Saturday for a 7:30 p.m. MIAC matchup with the Oles.