DE PERE, Wis. — For the first 40 minutes of their nonconference game Saturday afternoon, the Saint Mary's University of Minnesota and St. Norbert women's hockey teams saw themselves embroiled in a defensive battle.
 
After scoring just one goal—combined—through two periods, the teams combined for six goals over the final 20 minutes.
 
Unfortunately for the Cardinals, it was St. Norbert's offense that did the majority of the damage, scoring four third-period goals in handing Saint Mary's a 5-2 setback at Resch Olympic Pavilion.
 
"Despite the final score, it was a pretty back-and-forth game for the most part," said Saint Mary's coach Terry Mannor. "They are a high-quality opponent—we are only going to continue to get better playing teams like that."
 
The Green Knights scored the only goal of the first two periods, as Katie Conlon tallied the first of St. Norbert's three power-play goals with less than five minutes remaining in the opening stanza.
 
After a scoreless second period, the defensive struggle turned into an offensive free-for-all.
 
SNC pushed its lead to 2-0 at 4:30 of the third on Megan Crandell's first goal of the season, but the Cardinals' Jamie Henderson (Madison, Wis.) answered 14 seconds later, taking a feed from McKenna Parent (Anoka, Minn.) and beating Green Knights' goalie Leigh Grall for the first goal of her collegiate career.
 
Kylie Gazzolo and Selena Stromer scored back-to-back goals in a five-minute span to push the St. Norbert lead to 4-1, but again the Cardinals would answer on Jesse Cwik's (Chicago, Ill.) unassisted tally at 16:46.
 
That, however, would be as close as Saint Mary's would get, as Ali Parker added an insurance goal with 41 seconds remaining to seal the Green Knights' victory.
 
Marah Shields (Milford, Mich.) finished with a career-high 36 saves against St. Norbert—marking the second time in as many meetings against the Green Knights that the sophomore recorded 36 saves. Grall, meanwhile, kicked out 19 of the Cardinals' 21 shots for St. Norbert (4-4-1 overall).
 
The Cardinals (2-4-1 overall) return to Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference play against St. Catherine next weekend. Saint Mary's travels to Drake Arena in St. Paul, Minn., on Friday for a 7 p.m. matchup vs. the Wildcats, before returning home for the 2 p.m. rematch a day later at the Saint Mary's Ice Arena.