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LAKE FOREST, Ill. — After surrendering six goals — two in each of the three periods — in Sunday's 6-5 nonconference loss to Lake Forest, the Saint Mary's University women's hockey team blanked the high-powered Foresters through the game's first two periods.

Unfortunately for the Cardinals, over the game's final 20 minutes the Foresters erupted for five goals in handing SMU a 5-1 setback at Alumni Memorial Rink.

"This was a disappointing loss," said SMU coach Terry Mannor. "We had the lead in the third period and just kind of imploded, once (Lake Forest) got the momentum with that first goal, things just seemed to snowball — in a bad way."

After a scoreless first period, the Cardinals finally broke the ice late in the second stanza, as Haley Coolsaet (Grosse Ile, Mich.) netted her second goal in as many games, rifling a slap shot from the blue line that eluded screened Lake Forest goalie Casey Hartfiel with 2:03 remaining.

That, however, would be the extent of the Cardinals' offense.

And Lake Forest's high-octane offense had yet to get shifted out of neutral.

That all changed when Forester leading scorer Michelle Greeneway scored her team-leading 16th goal — and second in as many games vs. SMU — less than three minutes into the final period. Forty-two seconds later, Allie Girard netted the first of her two goals to give Lake Forest the lead for good, 2-1.

The Foresters then took a page out of SMU's Sunday playbook, scoring three times in a span of 2:34 in the game's final four minutes to round out the scoring.

Marah Shields (Mitford, Mich.) stopped the first 25 shots she faced and finished with a career-high 33 saves for the Cardinals, while Lake Forest goalie Casey Hartfiel stopped 14 of the 15 SMU shots she faced.

"We had our moments this weekend," Mannor said. "But right now we are just playing too much as individuals and not enough as a team — and it's my responsibility to get that changed."

The Cardinals are back in action this weekend, squaring off against UW-Eau Claire in a pair of nonconference games. SMU will host the Blugolds at 3 p.m. at the SMU Ice Arena on Friday, before travels to Eau Claire, Wis., for a 2 p.m. contest on Saturday.