WORCESTER, Mass. — Saint Mary's University women's hockey coach Sarah Murray might want to double-check before her Cardinals' next game to make sure there isn't some sort of invisible shield covering the opponent's net during the first period.
 
Try as they might, the Cardinals just can't seem to score a first-period goal.
 
For the fourth straight game, Saint Mary's came up empty in the game's opening 20 minutes Thursday evening against Worcester State and went into the locker room mired in a 0-0 stalemate.
 
Fortunately for the Cardinals, the "shield" was lift in the second period, as the Cardinals erupted for four goals in the game's middle 20-minute stanza and cruised to a 4-1 nonconference victory over the Lancers.
 
After that scoreless first period — including Saint Mary's outshot the Lancers 11-3 — the Cardinals wasted no time getting their offense rolling, as Anna Braun (Mantorville, Minn.) scored her second goal of the season just 3:03 into the period to give SMU a 1-0 lead.
 
Worcester State would knot the game at 1-1 at 13:10 on a goal by Cassidine Wozniak, but that deadlock did not last long, as Saint Mary's rattled off three straight goals in less than three minutes — including two less than 30 seconds apart – to regain control.
 
Jenna Kurkowski (North Branch, Minn.) gave Saint Mary's the lead for good with a power-play tally at 14:52, and, after the ensuing faceoff, Ellie Hegdahl (Brookings, S.D.) pushed that advantage to 3-1.
 
And the Cardinals weren't finished, as Delaney Wolf (Bismarck, N.D.) capped Saint Mary's four-goal second period, netting her first of the season with 2:48 to play in the frame.
 
Hegdahl and Avrey Simonson (Waupace, Wis.)  fueled the Cardinal offense with their first collegiate two-point games — Hegdahl added an assist to her second-period goal and Simonson recorded back-to-back assists on the goals by Hegdahl and Wolf.
 
Ary Ziakas (Palatine, Ill.), coming off her fourth career shutout — a 12-save effort in SMU's 1-0 win over Johnson & Wales on Wednesday — finished with 18 saves, while Worcester State goalie Amber Lee stopped 41 of Saint Mary's season-high 45 shots on goal.
 
The Cardinals (8-5-0 overall) return to Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference play on Jan. 14-15, when they travel to Mars Lakeview Arena in Duluth, Minn., for a pair of games against conference-newcomer St. Scholastica.