By DONNY NADEAU
Saint Mary's Sports Information Director
 
WINONA, Minn. — If there's one thing to be said about the Saint Mary's University women's hockey team, it's that the Cardinals are not intimated by playing against the nation's best.
 
The Cardinals — who had already played three games against teams sitting in the Top 5 of the USCHO.com Poll — were once again facing a nationally ranked team on Friday.
 
This time, the fourth-ranked Gusties.
 
And the Gusties' lofty ranking didn't faze the Cardinals in the least, as Saint Mary's battled Gustavus to a 2-2, overtime tie at the Saint Mary's Ice Arena in the first game of the teams' Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference series.
 
Sophia Zebro (Oak Grove, Minn.) got the Cardinals on the board first, scoring her third goal of the season at 14:26 of the first period, but the lead did not last long, as Gustavus' Jordyn Peterson answered less than two minutes later to knot the game at 1-1.
 
The Cardinals themselves once again playing with the lead — thanks to Lauryn Folker's (Cody, Wyo.) second goal of the season 4:45 into the second period — and this time Saint Mary's made it stand up.
 
For a while, anyway.
 
Saint Mary's nursed its one-goal advantage until late in the third period, when Gustavus' Kristina Press beat Cardinal goalie Ary Ziakas (Palatine, Ill.) with just 5:06 left to play to pull the Gusties even, 2-2.
 
Gustavus outshot the Cardinals 6-1 in the five-minute overtime, but could not get one past Ziakas, who finished with a season-high 44 saves — including 19 in the third period
 
The Cardinals (2-2-1 MIAC, 2-5-1 overall) and Gusties (4-0-1 MIAC, 7-0-1 overall) now head to Don Roberts Ice Arena in St. Peter, Minn., for Saturday's second game of the teams' two-game conference series. Game time is slated for 2 p.m.