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EAU CLAIRE, Wis. — Saint Mary's University women's hockey coach Terry Mannor isn't psychic, but prior to Friday's nonconference against UW-Eau Claire, he did predict it would be a nailbiter.

How right he was.

Brittany Therrien (Brooklyn Park, Minn.) scored two minutes into the third period, breaking a 1-1 tie and lifting the Cardinals to a 2-1 victory over the Blugolds at Hobbs Ice Arena.

“We always seem to have close battles with (UW-Eau Claire), so that's pretty much what I expected again tonight,” said Mannor, whose team snapped a five-game winless streak (0-3-2) with the victory. “We got off to a bit of a slow start, but I thought we picked things up and continued to play better and better as the game wore on.”

Erin Stenseth (Eau Claire, Wis.) got the Cardinals on the board six minutes into the second period on an unassisted tally, but the Blugolds answered eight minutes later, as Sam Knutson beat SMU goalie Sarah Gustafson (Esko, Minn.) to knot the game at 1-1 — and set up Therrien's third-period heroics.

Gustafson finished with 28 saves in goal for the Cardinals — including 12 in the third period — while the Cardinals pelted UW-Eau Claire goalie Mara Stormer with 21 shots.

“It's nice to open the new year with a win,” said Mannor. “Hopefully we can pick up right where we left off (on Saturday).”

The Cardinals (3-5-3 overall) are back in action on Saturday, hosting UW-Eau Claire in the second game of their two-game nonconference series at the SMU Ice Arena. Puck drops at 2 p.m.