WINONA, Minn. — The Saint Mary's University and Augsburg women's hockey teams both took the ice for  Friday's Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference showdown on the heels of overtime thrillers last Saturday
 
The Cardinals were coming off a 2-1 OT setback at the hands of Hamline, while the Auggies outlasted St. Catherine 4-3.
 
And with nine minutes remaining in regulation on Friday, it appeared as if the two teams were going to need another extra session.
 
Sophia Paduano (Westby, Wis.), however, had other ideas, as the Cardinal freshman scored a highlight-reel shorthanded goal to break a 2-2 tie and lead Saint Mary's to a 3-2 conference win over the Auggies at the Saint Mary's Ice Arena.
 
For the first two-and-a-half periods, all the Cardinal offense came off the stick of Reese Heitzman (Hermantown, Minn.), who scored her team-leading seventh and eighth goals of the season — and extended her points streak to seven straight games.
 
Heitzman scored goal No. 7 on the year at 12:07 of the first period and added No. 8 57 seconds into the second period to give SMU a 2-0 advantage. Augsburg responded with a goal by Kennedy Stein at 3:51 of the middle period to get within one, and knotted the game at 2-2 on Emily Cronkhite's tally with 11:40 to play in the third.
 
Enter Paduano.
 
After killing off 48 seconds of a 5-on-3 Augsburg power-play — but still playing a player down — Paduano stole the puck deep in the Auggie zone, zipped past a pair of defenders, deked goalie Chloe Stockinger and lifted the puck into the open net to give Saint Mary's the lead for good.
 
Celeste Rimstad (Richfield, Minn.) did her part between the pipes for the Cardinals, stopping 29 of the Auggies' 31 shots on goal, while Stockinger finished with 24 saves for the Auggies.
 
The Cardinals (2-1-0 MIAC, 5-2-0 overall) and Auggies will go at it again on Saturday, heading to the Ed Saugestad Rink in Minneapolis, Minn., for the 3 p.m. conference rematch.
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