MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. — The Saint Mary's University women's hockey team's Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference rematch with Augsburg Saturday afternoon looked eerily similar to Friday's opening game of the two-game series.
Including the end result.
Fresh off a nail-biting, 3-2 win over the Auggies on Friday evening in a game in which Saint Mary's netted the game's first two goals, the Cardinals once again netted the first two goals on Saturday.
And once again came away with a nail-biting, one-goal victory.
Reese Heitzman (Hermantown, Minn.) and
Celia Midtbo (Minneapolis, Minn.) scored goals, and
Celeste Rimstad (Richfield, Minn.) kicked out 37 of the 38 shots she faced, in leading SMU to a 2-1 sweep-clinching victory at Ed Saugestad Rink.
Heitzman — who scored her team-leading seventh and eighth goals of the season in Friday's 3-2 win — found the back of the net for a third time in the two-game series, beating Augsburg goalie Chloe Stockinger with 5:09 remaining in the opener period for a 1-0 Saint Mary's lead.
Midtbo pushed the advantage to 2-0 with her second of the season four minutes into the second stanza, but the Auggies would answer, cutting the deficit in half on a goal by Kennedy Stein with 11:23 to play in the middle frame.
And that's the way the score would remain over the game's final 31:23 — thanks in large part to Rimstad, who stopped all 21 shots she faced in the first period and all 13 sent her way in the third, including several highlight-reel saves in the waning minutes.
The Cardinals (3-1-0 MIAC, 6-2-0 overall) are back in action on Tuesday, when they travel to K.B. Willett Arena in Stevens Point, Wis., for a 7 p.m. nonconference showdown against UW-Stevens Point.
