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NORTHFIELD, Minn. — There was only one thing about the Saint Mary's University women's hockey team's 4-1 win over St. Olaf that coach Terry Mannor would change — and that was the fact that Saturday's game was a nonconference contest, rather than a Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference matchup.

“It was one of those things where we needed to pick up a game, and St. Olaf was in the same boat, so we just scheduled a (third) game,” explained Mannor of the rarity of playing a conference team in a nonconference setting. “It sure would have been nice to have this be one of the conference games, no question about that.”

It took SMU a while to get its offense on track against the Oles, but once they warmed up, the Cardinals were virtually unstoppable.

After failing to score in the game's opening two periods — and staring at a 1-0 deficit heading into the final 20 minutes of regulation — the Cardinals kicked their game into high gear, getting four goals from four different players in securing their fourth win of the season.

“It was a typical SMU-St. Olaf game,” said Mannor, whose team lost 5-4 and 3-1 to the Oles in their two-game conference series on Dec. 2-3. “It was back-and-forth for the first two periods, but in the third we really seemed to pick things up — which was great to see.

“We've been struggling a bit offensively and it was nice to see us break out a bit.”

Nicole Olson (New Brighton, Minn.) got the Cardinals jump-started with her fourth goal of the season midway through the third period. Erin Stenseth (Eau Claire, Wis.) gave SMU the lead for good two minutes later, netting her team-leading fifth goal of the year.

Brittany Therrien (Brooklyn Park, Minn.) gave SMU a little breathing room with a goal at 15:58 of the third, and Mary DeBartolo (Chicago, Ill.) iced the win with an empty net goal with 35 seconds remaining.

Sarah Gustafson (Esko, Minn.) finished with 27 saves in recording the win in goal for SMU, while the Cardinals finished with 32 shots on St. Olaf goalie Alli McKeever.

SMU (4-6-3 overall) returns to conference play next weekend, hosting St. Thomas in a 2 p.m. game at the SMU Ice Arena on Saturday, before traveling to the St. Thomas Ice Arena in Mendota Heights, Minn., for the rematch on Sunday at 2 p.m.