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WINONA, Minn. — The Saint Mary's University women's hockey team was at its best in the third period during its two Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference games against St. Olaf this weekend.

On Friday, the Cardinals outshot the host Oles 16-4 and outscored them 2-1 — but it was not enough, as St. Olaf held off SMU 5-3 at the Northfield Ice Arena.

And it was more of the same in the teams' rematch on Saturday, as the Cardinals held a decisive 19-9 edge in shots on goal in the game's final 20 minutes, only to come up empty in falling to the Oles 3-1 at the SMU Ice Arena.

“Overall, I thought those were the two best games we've played all year — and, unfortunately, we have nothing to show for it,” said SMU coach Terry Mannor. “We outshot (St. Olaf) 35-13 in the third period of the two games combined and just couldn't convert.

“It's frustrating, because I thought we played well enough to be coming away with two wins, not two losses.”

Unlike Friday's contest, in which St. Olaf raced out to a 3-0 first-period advantage, the teams headed into the locker room after 20 minutes of play deadlocked at 0-0.

And for the first 17 minutes of the second period, the defensive struggle continued. St. Olaf's Shea Noerenberg broke the scoreless deadlock at 17:21, scoring her second goal of the season, and, 17 seconds later, the Cardinals knotted things at 1-1, as Breanna Peterson (Macomb, Mich.) netted her team-leading fifth goal.

St. Olaf regained the lead on a Katie Moeller goal at 12:36 of the third period, then added an empty net goal by Nicole Stumpf with 25 seconds remaining in regulation to round out the scoring.

“We have played some very good hockey of late, and just aren't getting the breaks we need,” said Mannor. “We've got some time off now, and, hopefully, we can come back and get those breaks to fall our way.”

The Cardinals (2-4-0 MIAC, 3-6-0 overall) are now off until Jan. 4-5, when they square off against UW-Eau Claire in a home-and-home series.