By
DONNY NADEAU
Saint Mary's Sports Information Director
WINONA, Minn. — On paper, it appeared as if the Saint Mary's University of Minnesota women's hockey team's Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference opener against St. Thomas would be a high-scoring affair.
After all, the two teams entered Friday's showdown having netted a combined 25 goals.
The Cardinals'
Jordan Keeley (St. Peter, Minn.) and the Tommies' Mackenzie Torpy, however, had other ideas.
Keeley was near-perfect in her second start between the pipes for the Cardinals, allowing just one goal — a tally with just over six minutes remaining in regulation.
Unfortunately for Cardinal coach
Greg Moore, the Tommies' Torpy did Keeley one better, stopping all 18 Saint Mary's shots, as ninth-ranked St. Thomas dealt the Cardinals a 1-0 setback at the Saint Mary's Ice Arena.
"It's hard to be too disappointed — I thought we put together a tremendous effort," said Moore, whose team suffered its first loss, after opening the season with back-to-back wins over St. Norbert and Marian on Oct. 26-27. "We put ourselves in a position to win — and that's all you can ask.
"St. Thomas is a very good team and we went toe-to-to with them," Moore added. "It would have been nice to come away with a point or two, but I certainly can't fault the effort — it was outstanding."
The Cardinals enjoyed the upper hand early, outshooting St. Thomas 10-6 through the game's opening 20 minutes, but had nothing on the scoreboard to show for their efforts.
St. Thomas turned the tables in the middle stanza, holding an 18-3 edge in shots on goal — but Keeley was up to the task, kicking aside all 18 UST shots to keep the game deadlocked at 0-0 heading into the final 20 minutes.
The Tommies' finally broke the ice at 14:07 of the third period, as Sam Auman deflected an Anna Solheim shot past Keeley for what proved to be the only goal of the game.
Keeley — who posted a 16-save shutout in her first collegiate start against Marian on Oct. 27 — finished with a career-high 28 saves, while Torpy made the Cardinals her third shutout victim of the season with an 18-save effort.
Saint Mary's (0-1-0 MIAC, 2-1-0 overall) gets another shot at the ninth-ranked Tommies on Saturday, heading to the St. Thomas Ice Arena in Mendota Heights, Minn., for the 2 p.m. conference rematch.
