ST. PAUL, Minn. — What a difference a day makes.
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Friday evening, the Saint Mary's University women's hockey team dominated its Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference game against St. Catherine, shutting down the high-octane St. Catherine offense in posting a 5-0 victory at the Saint Mary's Ice Arena.
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Less than 24 hours later, the same two teams were back at it – and this time, the Wildcats' offense would not be denied.
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St. Catherine scored four unanswered goals, erasing an early 1-0 Saint Mary's advantage, as SCU salvaged a tie in the teams' two-game conference series with a 6-3 victory Saturday afternoon at Drake Arena.
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It would be the Cardinals who picked up right where they left off the previous night, scoring at 7:03 of the opening period on a goal by Tavern Sherner (Maple Grove, Minn.).
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The lead would not last long, however, as SCU's Ellie Skaja answered Sherner's goal with one of her own just 39 seconds later — and by the time Taryn Dornself (Somerset, Wis.) would net SMU's second tally of the afternoon 13 minutes into the third period, the Wildcats had struck three more times.
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Marie Remer and Laura Denchfield would net second-period goals for the Wildcats and Maddie Fleming added a goal at 8:36 of the third to give SCU a 4-1 lead. Dornself's goal made it a 4-2 game, but Denchfield and Remer would score their second goals of the game — sandwiched around a SMU goal by
Anne Carmean (Spring Lake Park, Minn.) — to round out the scoring.
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Celeste Rimstad (Richfield, Minn.) finished with 17 saves in goal for SMU. Rimstad — who stopped all 24 shots she faced in recording her second collegiate shutout on Friday — had her scoreless minute streak ended at 195:56 minutes on Skaja's first-period tally. It was the first goal the SMU freshman has allowed since a late, third-period goal by Hamline on Nov. 12.
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The Cardinals (2-7-1 MIAC, 5-11-1 overall) are back in action next weekend with a pair of games against Bethel. SMU and BU will square off at 7 p.m. at the Saint Mary's Ice Arena on Friday, before heading to Bethel Arena in Blaine, Minn., for a 6 p.m. rematch the following afternoon.
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