WINONA, Minn. — The Saint Mary's University women's hockey team has been searching for a way to put together a complete weekend.
 
The search is over.
 
Coming off a 3-1 victory over Augsburg on Friday in the first game of the teams' two-game Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference series, the Cardinals took the ice for Game 2 determined to put together a repeat performance.
 
Which is exactly what they did.
 
The Cardinals limited the Auggies to just a single first-period tally, and scored a pair of goals of their own in the game's middle period, carrying Saint Mary's to a 2-1 victory Saturday afternoon at Ed Saugestad Rink — and that all important conference sweep.
 
Augsburg made the Cardinals have to play catch-up, scoring the game's first goal — off the stick of Kennedy Stein — seven minutes into the opening period.
 
The Auggies would maintain that one-goal advantage until the 3:30 mark of the second stanza, when Kas Kingston (Black Diamond, Alberta) put the Cardinals on the board with her fourth goal of the season.
 
And Ellie Hegdahl (Brookings, S.D.) broke the deadlock — and sealed the sweep-clinching victory — scoring at 14:54 of the middle period off an assist from Allie Urlaub (Burnsville, Minn.).
 
With the Cardinals clinging to that one-goal lead, SMU goalie Ary Ziakas (Palatine, Ill.) did her part, stopping 11 second-period shots and seven more in the third to make that 2-1 lead stand up.
 
The Cardinals (9-4-1 MIAC, 12-8-1 overall), who solidified their spot among the top four in the conference with the sweep of the Auggies — and that all-important home ice advantage for the opening round of the conference tournament — close out the regular-season portion of their schedule next weekend with a pair of games against Bethel. Saint Mary's and BU will face-off at 7 p.m. on Friday at the Saint Mary's Ice Arena, before heading to Bethel Arena in Blaine, Minn., for a 2 p.m.rematch the following afternoon.
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