Box Score  | GameDay Preview

ST. CLOUD, Minn. — All week long, Saint Mary's University women's hockey coach has had his team focusing on the "little things," in hopes of snapping out their season-opening funk.

And Friday evening, those little things paid off in a big way, as the Cardinals jumped out to a 2-0 second-period lead en route to a 3-1 Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference victory over Saint Benedict at the Municipal Athletic Complex.

"We played a solid game," said SMU coach Terry Mannor, whose team put an end to its three-game losing streak with the victory. "The little things that we've been concentrating on all week in practice really showed through tonight.

"It was a good, overall team win."

After a scoreless first period, Jane Hannula (Coon Rapids, Minn.) got the Cardinals on the board six minutes into the middle stanza, as the freshman netted her first collegiate goal off assists from Mary DeBartolo (Chicago, Ill.) and Brooke Bartelt (New Prague, Minn.).

DeBartolo would push the SMU advantage to 2-0 with eight seconds remaining in the second period. CSB cut the gap to one, 2-1, on a goal by Megan Brettingen at 16:04 of the third period, but McKenna Parent (Anoka, Minn.) would tally an empty net goal with 1:25 remaining in regulation to ice the win for the Cardinals.

Sarah Gustafson (Esko, Minn.) finished with 19 saves in goal for the Cardinals — including 10 in the third period — while SMU peppered CSB goalie Kaitlyn Rolando with 29 shots.

The Cardinals (1-2-0 MIAC, 1-3-0 overall) go for the conference sweep against the Blazers on Saturday, as the two teams square off in the second game of their two-game conference series at 2 p.m. at the MAC.