Box Score  | GameDay Preview

ST. PAUL, Minn. — Heading into Saturday's Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference game against St. Catherine, the Saint Mary's University women's hockey team boasted one rather impressive statistic: The Cardinals had not been scored on in the first period in any of their first five games.

Five minutes into the opening period against the Wildcats, however, that streak came to a screeching halt, as Annie Buttermore netted the first of three SCU first-period goals — and the Cardinals never recovered, in falling to St. Catherine 4-1 at Drake Arena.

It's a tough loss,” said SMU coach Terry Mannor. “For the first five minutes of the first period, we just dominated — I don't think the puck crossed center ice more than once — and that time was on an icing.

“But we took a penalty and (St. Catherine) scored on it and it just took away all of our momentum,” Mannor added. “Before we knew what hit us, we were down 3-0.

“I thought once we started playing again — once we started moving our feet — we played well. Give St. Catherine credit, they took advantage of every (scoring) opportunity they had, and we didn't.”

After SCU's Laurel Prodehl pushed SCU's lead to 4-0 at 11:36 of the second period, the Cardinals finally broke through, as McKenna Parent (Ham Lake, Minn.) broke SCU goalie Samantha Geissler's shutout bid, scoring SMU's lone goal late in the second period, but that would be the extent of the Cardinals' offensive attack.

The Cardinals (2-2-0 MIAC, 3-3-0 Overall) step out of conference play on Tuesday, traveling to the Hastings Ice Arena in Hastings, Minn., for a neutral-site nonconference game against St. Scholastica. Puck drops at 7 p.m.