STEVENS POINT, Wis. — As if slowing down UW-Stevens Point's high-octane offense wasn't going to be tough enough, the Saint Mary's University women's hockey team also had to figure out a way to shut down the Pointers' Nicole Neuberger.
 
UW-Stevens Point took the ice against Saint Mary's Sunday having scored 15 goals in sweeping a pair of games from Lawrence over the previous two days, while Neuberger had extended her goal-scoring streak to five straight games with a combined four goals in the two contests with the Vikings.
 
And the Pointers in general — and Neuberger in particular — were once again clicking on all cylinders against the Cardinals.
 
Neuberger scored UW-Stevens Point's first and last goals, and the Pointers broke open a two-goal game with three third-period goals in dealing Saint Mary's a 5-0 setback at Ice Hawks Arena.
 
It appeared as if the Cardinals would head into the locker room after the first period deadlocked at 0-0 for the second straight day — having battled No. 3 UW-Eau Claire to a first-period stalemate on Saturday.
 
The Pointers, however, had other ideas, breaking through with 1:58 to go in the period on Neuberger's team-leading 10th goal of the season to give UW-Stevens Point the 1-0 edge after 20 minutes of play.
 
And while it took more than 18 minutes for the Pointers to net their first goal of the afternoon in the first period, they needed just 58 seconds into the second to make it 2-0, as Makie Zipp beat SMU goalie Jordan Keeley (St. Peter, Minn.) on the power play.
 
Saint Mary's smothered the Pointers over the final 19:02 of the second period — thanks in part ot the play of Keeley, who finished with 10 second-period saves — to keep it a two-goal deficit heading into the game's final 20 minutes of play.
 
In eerily similar fashion to the second period, the Pointers once again struck quickly in the third, as Courtney Leising scored just 2:03 into the frame to make it a 3-0 UW-SP advantage. UW-Stevens Point would add back-to-back goals in the final 2:55 — including Neuberger's second of the game, and ninth in the last six contests, with 1:28 to play — to seal the win.
 
Keeley finished with 27 saves in goal for the Cardinals, while UW-Stevens Point goalie Olivia Schultz kicked out all 26 Saint Mary's shots in recording the shutout.
 
The Cardinals (6-5-0 overall) are right back in action on Wednesday and Thursday, when they square off against Johnson & Wales and Worcester State in a pair of nonconference road contests.