WINONA, Minn. — The Saint Mary's University of Minnesota women's hockey team had so much fun playing an overtime period in Friday's 4-3 victory over Saint Benedict, the Cardinals decided to put in a little OT again in the teams' rematch on Saturday.
 
This time, however, the Cardinals would have to settle for a tie, as Saint Mary's and Saint Benedict battled to a 2-2 deadlock at the Saint Mary's Ice Arena.
 
"It was nice to come away with three points on the weekend—especially coming up with that big goal late (in the third period) to get it to overtime," said Saint Mary's coach Terry Mannor, whose Cardinals scored 47 seconds into overtime on a goal by Natalie Ryan (Village of Lakewood, Ill.) to seal Friday's win. "We had our chances, we just couldn't convert."
 
The Cardinals certainly had a flair for the dramatic in Saturday's rematch with the Blazers—scoring with just 3.7 seconds left in the opening period, then netting the game-tying goal with 54 seconds left in regulation to earn the tie.
 
Kayla Henning (Burnsville, Minn.) broke a scoreless tie with her first collegiate goal—off an assist from Kassie Lien (Grantsburg, Wis.)—just before the horn sounded to give the Cardinals a 1-0 lead after the game's opening 20 minutes.
 
Neither team could find the back of the net in the second period—thanks in large part to the play of Cardinal goalie Marah Shields (Mitford, Mich.) and her CSB counterpart, Julia Carle. Shields stopped all 14 Blazer shots in the game's middle period, while Carle kicked out 10 Saint Mary's shots.
 
The Blazers finally got one past Shields at 9:23 of the third period, as Maddie Dockry beat the Cardinal senior for her fourth of the season. Less than four minutes later, Saint Benedict grabbed its first lead of the game on a goal by Kimberly Patterson.
 
Saint Benedict would cling to that one-goal advantage until late, when Lindsay Paschke pulled the Cardinals even, scoring her third goal of the season, with Lien and Hannah Croonquist (St. Paul, Minn.) picked up the assists.
 
Shields finished with 26 saves in goal for the Cardinals, while Carle matched that effort between the pipes for the Blazers.
 
The Cardinals (3-10-3 MIAC, 6-14-3 overall) close out their regular season next weekend, traveling to Drake Arena in St. Paul, Minn., on Friday for a 7 p.m. conference matchup against St. Catherine, with the two teams then heading to the Saint Mary's Ice Arena for Saturday's 2 p.m. rematch.