WINONA, Minn. — Heading into the final two games of the regular season, the Saint Mary's University of Minnesota women's hockey team controlled its own destiny in regards to earning one of the five invitations to the conference post-season tournament.
 
Two wins, and they were in.
 
The Wildcat, however, rained on Saint Mary's parade Friday evening, scoring three unanswered goals in handing the Cardinals a 4-2 at the Saint Mary's Ice Arena.
 
And, thanks to St. Catherine's victory, the Cardinals are not only left staring at a must-win scenario in the teams' rematch on Saturday at 2 p.m. at Drake Arena in St. Paul, Minn.—but they are going to need some outside help, too.
 
"That was a tough one," said Saint Mary's coach Terry Mannor, whose Cardinals must beat St. Catherine on Saturday, and then hope that Gustavus loses to Hamline—the Gusties beat HU 9-3 Friday and are one point in front of Saint Mary's with one game remaining. "It's not that we played that poorly, we just didn't play as well as we needed to.
 
"St. Catherine capitalized on their opportunities—and that was the difference," Mannor added. "Now we've got to find a way to bounce back on Saturday—and hope that Hamline can come through for us."
 
Saint Mary's got out to an early lead, as Jane Hannula (Coon Rapids, Minn.) took a pass from Kayla Pierson (Shorewood, Ill.) and beat St. Catherine goalie Kirsten Pechacek to the short side for a 1-0 Cardinal lead with seven minutes remaining in the opening period.
 
A lead the Cardinals would carry into the game's middle period, only to have the Wildcats (in general) and Mallory Ryan (in particular) seize the momentum—and the lead.
 
Ryan scored two goals in the first three minutes of the second period to transform that 1-0 deficit into a 2-1 advantage.
 
St. Catherine pushed its lead to 3-1 midway through the final frame when Laken Muller picked up a Cardinal turnover and broke in alone on Saint Mary's goalie Tori Herrmann (Elk River, Minn.), beating the Cardinal senior with a wrist shot for her sixth goal of the season—a short-handed tally at 9:47.
 
The two-goal cushion did not last long, however, as Hannula netted her second of the game less than a minute later—off an assist from Katie LeTourneau (White Bear Lake, Minn.)—to once again make it a one-goal game, 3-2.
 
That, however, would be as close as the Cardinals would get, as Muller netted her second of the game—an empty-netter with 21 seconds remaining—to seal the Wildcat win.
 
Herrmann, who came into the game ranked No. 3 in all of NCAA Division III with a .953 save percentage, finished with 20 saves against the Wildcats, while Pechacek—the nation's save percentage leader at .963—stopped 16 of the 18 Saint Mary's shots she faced.