SAINT MARY’S CARDINALS

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2023-24: 12-4-2 MIAC, 18-5-2 Overall

AUGSBURG AUGGIES

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2023-24: 15-3-0 MIAC, 19-6-0 Overall

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MIAC PLAYOFFS:

Quarterfinal | Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2024

No. 5 Bethel at No. 4 Hamline, 7:00

Semifinals | Saturday, Feb. 24, 2024
No. 4/5 at No. 1 Gustavus, 2:00
No. 3 Saint Mary’s at No. 2 Augsburg, 2:00

Championship | Saturday, Mar. 2, 2024
High seed host, 2:00

TICKETS:

All MIAC playoff contests must charge admission. 

Adults - $10 | Students - $2 (5-under free)

SMU-AUG * LAST MEETING:

Nov. 17-18, 2023

W, 3-2 * W, 2-1 * Series History

SAINT MARY’S * LAST ACTION:

Feb. 16-17, 2024

Concordia * W, 3-1; T, 3-3

AUGSBURG * LAST ACTION:

Feb. 16-17, 2024

St. Scholastica * W, 5-0; W, 5-3

SAINT MARY’S SCOUTING REPORT:

• FOR RECORD: The Cardinals head into post-season play boasting an 18-5-2 overall record, including a 12-4-2 mark in conference play, earning SMU the No. 3 seed in this year’s MIAC Playoffs.

• LAST ACTION: The Cardinals sealed their No. 3 spot in the five-team MIAC Playoffs with a 3-1 win and a 3-3 tie/shootout win against Concordia last weekend at the SMU Ice Arena.

• PLAYOFF EXPERIENCE: Saint Mary’s is making its 14th MIAC Playoff appearance, and its first since the 2021-22 season, when the Cardinals opened with a 5-3 win over Saint Benedict, before falling to Hamline 4.2. … SMU — which has appeared in the conference tournament in 2000-01, 2001-02, 2002-03, 2003-04, 2004-05, 2005-06, 2006-07, 2009-10, 2014-15, 2015-16, 2018-19, 2019-20, 2021-22, and 2023-24 — and won the event in 2002.

• RACKING UP WINS: Saint Mary’s 3-1 win over Concordia last Friday was its 18th of the season, the most wins in a season since the 2001-02 season, when Saint Mary’s finished the year 21-6-1. … SMU’s 12 conference wins, meanwhile, are the most since going 15-3-0 during the 2000-01.

• PUTTING IN SOME OT: With their 3-3 tie against Concordia last Saturday, Saint Mary’s has now played five overtime games this season — including going to OT in three of their last four contests. … SMU is 2-1-2 in its five overtime games — beating Bethel (4-3) on Jan. 27 and St. Scholastica (2-1) Feb. 9, falling to Hamline (2-1) on Nov. 11, and tying St. Scholastica (2-2) on Feb. 10 and Concordia (3-3) last Saturday.

• STREAK-SNAPPER: With their 2-1 loss to Saint Benedict on Feb. 3, the Cardinals had their season-high nine-game winning streak snapped. The nine-game run was SMU’s longest since 2001-02, when the Cardinal won 10 in a row. … Saint Mary’s has also put together three, three-game winning streaks this season. … The Cardinals had three-game winning streak No. 2 snapped with their 3-1 loss to then-#1 Gustavus on Dec. 1, while the added 3-0 loss the following day marked the first time this season SMU had dropped back-to-back games.

• FACING NATION’S BEST: The Cardinals have faced three nationally ranked teams this season, beating then-seventh-ranked (now #6) UW-Eau Claire 2-1 on Nov. 3, falling to then-#4 (now #1) UW-River Falls on Nov. 4, and dropping a pair of games to then-No. 1-ranked and defending national champion Gustavus (now ranked #3) on Dec. 1-2.

• HOME SWEET HOME: The Cardinals played 14 of their 25 regular-season games on their home ice, going 10-3-1 — beating Lake Forest (7-0, 8-0), UW-Eau Claire (2-1), Augsburg (3-2), St. Olaf (5-2), St. Catherine (3-1), Lawrence (4-1), Bethel (4-3), Saint Benedict (5-1), and Concordia (3-1), while falling to Hamline (2-1 in OT), Gustavus (3-1), and Saint Benedict (2-1), and tying Concordia (3-3). … Saint Mary’s heads into Saturday’s playoff game at Augsburg sitting at 8-2-1 away from the SMU Ice Arena this season.

• CLOSE CALLS: Fifteen of the Cardinals’ 25 games have been decided by two goals or less, including one-goal or less decisions in eight of those outings.

• NOT-SO-CLOSE CALLS: Three of Saint Mary’s 18 wins have been by seven or more goals. SMU has posted 7-0 victories over both Lake Forest and the University of Dubuque, while beating the Foresters 8-0 in the second game of its season-opening sweep of Lake Forest.

• PUTTING UP BIG NUMBERS: SMU’s eight goals in its 8-0 win over Lake Forest on Oct. 28 were the most since blanking Lawrence 8-0 on Dec. 10, 2022. … The Cardinals’ 15 combined goals in sweeping Lake Forest on Oct. 28-29 were the most since SMU swept Bethel 11-0 and 8-3 on Jan. 4-5, 2002. … Saint Mary’s delivered a season-high 62 shots on goal in its 4-1 win Lawrence on Jan. 23. It was the second time in two years SMU has put up 62 SOGs vs. the Vikings. The program-record for shots on goal in a game sits at 80 against St. Olaf on Nov. 11, 2000.

• PUTTING UP LITTLE NUMBERS: Saint Mary’s matched a single-game program record, holding the University of Dubuque to just one shot on goal in the first period of its 7-0 win on Dec. 5. SMU first set the mark on Nov. 11, 2000, when the Cardinals held St. Olaf to one shot on goal in both the first and third periods. … UD finished with just six shots on goal on Dec. 5, the fewest allowed by the Cardinals since holding St. Olaf to five on No. 11, 2000.

• LIGHTING THE LAMP: Reese Heitzman (Hermantown, Minn.) heads into SMU’s MIAC Playoff semifinal against Augsburg boasting a team-high 17 goals — including the OT game-winner against St. Scholastica on Feb. 9 and a pair of goals in SMU’s 3-3 tie against Concordia last Saturday. The freshman has netted a goal in 13 of the team’s 25 games this season. Her 17 goals are the most since Emily Kearns scored 22 in 2003-04. … Sophia Paduano (Westby, Wis.) is sitting second to Heitzman with 15 goals, while Celia Midtbo (Minneapolis, Minn.) is third with 11. … Paduano, who boasted a season-high six-game goal-scoring streak this season, has scored a goal in 11 of the team’s last 14 games.

• DOUBLE-DIGIT SCORERS: With Heitzman (17), Paduano (15), and Midtbo (11) having all scored 10+ goals, it marks the first time SMU has had three players reach double figures in goals since the 2001-02 season — when Emily Kearns (32), Christy Hicks (15), and Jaimie Mussehl (13) achieved the feat. 

• FIRST AS A CARDINAL: Saint Mary’s has already had eight players — Heitzman, Vasilevich, Paduano, Midtbo, Ella Ausman (Chippewa Falls, Wis.), Kenzie Meland (Zimmerman, Minn.), Maggie Albers (Maple Grove, Minn.), and Ella Hennes (Ramsey, Minn.) — net their first goals as Cardinals this season.

• SPREADING THE WEALTH: The Cardinals opened the season with 10 different players scoring their first 10 goals. Albers, Hennes Urlaub, Kraus, Taverie Sherner (Maple Grove, Minn.), Ellie Hegdahl (Brookings, S.D.), and Jordy Wyant (Winnipeg, Manitoba) accounted for SMU’s seven goals in its 7-0 win on Oct. 27, while Paduano, Vasilevich, and Heitzman netted SMU’s first three goals in the Cardinals’ 8-0 win vs. the Foresters the following afternoon. … Saint Mary’s seven goals in its 7-0 win over the University of Dubuque on Dec. 5 were scored by seven different players, while SMU’s five goals in its 4-2 win and 2-1 loss to Hamline on Nov,. 10-11 also came from five different players.

• TOSSING THE HAT: Saint Mary’s has had two players record their first collegiate hat trick this season. Heitzman scored three goals against Lake Forest on Oct. 28, while Midtbo found the back of the net three times against Saint Benedict last Friday. … SMU has had a player record a hat trick in each of the last two seasons. Sidney Polzin (Chippewa Falls, Wis.) recorded her first collegiate hat trick and her first career five-point game in SMU’s 5-0 win over St. Catherine on Jan. 20, 2023.

• LENDING A HAND: Urlaub, who shared the team lead in assists with seven a year ago, has amassed a team-leading 16 helpers this season. Paduano is second on the team with 14 assists, followed by Midtbo and Kas Kingston (Black Diamond, Alberta) with 10 each. … Kingston (Black Diamond, Alberta) recorded a career-high three assists in the Cardinals’ 4-1 win over Lawrence on Jan. 23. … Saint Mary’s 109 assists have come from 20 different players.

• POINT PRODUCERS: Saint Mary’s boasts seven players who have reached double figures in points, led by Paduano with 29. Heitzman is sitting second in the points race with 26, followed by Urlaub (22), Midtbo (21), Kingston (14), Meland (11), and Sherner (10). … Heitzman has recorded at least one point in 16 of SMU’s 25 games this season. She had her season-high nine-game point streak snapped against #1 Gustavus on Dec. 1. … Paduano, meanwhile, has recorded at least one point in 16 games. … The last time SMU had four players eclipsed the 20-point mark was 2001-02, when Emily Kearns (50), Christy Hicks (30), Jaimie Mussehl (22), and Missy Westergren (21) all achieved the feat.

• BIG NIGHTS: Heitzman delivered her first collegiate four-point game against the University of Dubuque on Dec. 5, scoring once and assisting on three others. … Midtbo recorded her first collegiate two-goal and three-point game against Bethel on Jan. 27. … Urlaub collected a goal and three assists in SMU’s 8-0 win over Lake Forest on Oct. 28. The three assists and four points matched her career high. … Heitzman has recorded three multiple-goal games — scoring three times against Lake Forest on Oct. 28, while adding a pair of goals against Augsburg on Nov. 17 and scoring twice against Concordia last Friday. … Midtbo owns a two-goal game against Bethel on Jan. 27 and a three-goal game against Saint Benedict on Feb. 2. … Vasilevich tallied a two-goal game against Lake Forest on Oct. 28 and Paduano delivered the first multiple-goal game of her career with two tallies against UW-Stevens Point on Nov. 21.

• BETWEEN THE PIPES:Celeste Rimstad (Richfield, Minn.) — who leads the nation in minutes played (1481:24) — has started all 25 games in goal for the Cardinals, compiling a 1.46 goals-against-average and a .937 save percentage. … Rimstad stopped all 20 shots she faced in SMU’s 2-0 win over Bethel on Jan. 26 and has now recorded four shutouts this season, and five in her first two seasons as a Cardinal. … Rimstad has stopped 531 of the 567 shots she’s faced this season — including a career-high 42 saves in last SMU’s 3-1 loss to then-#4 UW-River Falls on Nov. 4. … Riley Vander Esch (Sioux Falls, S.D.) stopped all four shots she faced in relief of Rimstad against the University of Dubuque on Dec. 5, and boasts a 3.76 GAA and .778 save % in two appearances (31:53 minutes).

• THROWING UP ZEROS: The Cardinals had their season-opening shutout streak snapped at 179:47 minutes, when UW-Eau Claire scored with just 13 seconds remaining in regulation in the Cardinals’ 2-1 win over the then-seventh-ranked Blugolds on Nov. 3.

• THROWING UP ZEROS II: SMU’s 7-0 and 8-0 wins over Lake Forest on Oct. 27-28 marked the second straight season in which the Cardinals have posted back-to-back shutouts, having blanked Lawrence 3-0 and 8-0 on Dec. 9-10, 2022. … SMU added its third shutout of the season with its 7-0 win over the University of Dubuque on Dec. 5 and recorded shutout No. 4 with last Friday’s 4-0 win over St. Catherine.

• TOTAL DOMINATION: In its three games against Lawrence over the past two seasons, Saint Mary’s has outshot LU 183-37, and have outscored the Vikings 15-1 … SMU held a 28-1 first-period edge in SOG in their first meeting on Dec. 9, 2022, while boasting a 26-5 edge in shots in the second period the following evening. SMU outshot LU 24-3 in the first, 21-4 in the second, and 17-2 in the third in their Jan. 23 meeting this season.

• LONG TIME COMING: With their 2-1 win over then-seventh-ranked UW-Eau Claire on Nov. 3, Saint Mary’s improved to 3-0-0, marking the first time SMU had opened the season with back-to-back-to-back victories since beating Marian (5-0), St. Norbert (2-1), and UW-Eau Claire (4-1) to kick off the 2010-11 campaign.

• LONGER TIME COMING II: With their 4-0, 3-1 sweep of St. Catherine, the Cardinals picked up their first conference sweep of the Wildcats since the 2006-2007 season, when SMU won 3-1 and 3-0.

• CRUNCHING THE NUMBERS: SMU has outscored its 25 opponents 84-38, and hold an 888-576 advantage in shots on goal. … The Cardinals have scored 32 of their 84 goals in the second period, adding 26 tallies in the first and 24 in the third. … Saint Mary’s is 20-for-82 on the power play (24.4 %), while killing off 62 of its opponents’ 71 PP opportunities (87.3 %). … SMU has scored a season-high three power-play goals in a game twice — vs. St. Catherine on Jan. 20 and against Saint Benedict on Feb. 2. … The Cardinals set season-bests for goals (8), assists (13), and points (21) in their 8-0 win over the Foresters on Oct. 28, while their 62 shots on goal against both Lawrence on Jan. 23 and vs. St. Scholastica last Friday were a season high.

AUGSBURG SCOUTING REPORT:

• FOR THE RECORD: The Auggies will take to the ice on Saturday for its MIAC Playoff opener against Saint Mary’s sporting a 19-6-0 overall record, including a 15-3-0 showing en route to their second-place finish in the regular-season standings.

• LAST TIME OUT: Augsburg closed out its regular-season schedule in style, rolling to 5-0 and 5-3 wins over St. Scholastica last weekend, securing their No. 2 seed in the MIAC Playoffs.

• PLAYOFF EXPERIENCE: Augsburg is making its 11th MIAC Playoff appearance, and eighth in a row. Augsburg won the first official MIAC tournament in 1999-2000, appeared in the 2002-03, 2003-04 and 2004-05 tournaments, and in every tournament since the 2015-16 season. … Augsburg earned MIAC playoff runner-up honors in 2016-17, 2019-20, and 2022-23. … Augsburg is 8-10 all-time in MIAC playoff games.

• COMING IN HOT: Augsburg will take the ice on Saturday riding a six-game winning streak. The Auggies have not lost since dropping a 3-1 decision to seventh-ranked UW-Eau Claire on Jan. 30. … Augsburg closed out the regular season having won nine straight against conference foes. … After opening the season 3-4-0, Augsburg has gone 16-2-0 in its last 19 games.

• IN THE POLLS: The Auggies are sitting No. 15 in the latest USCHO.com Poll. … Augsburg has faced seven nationally-ranked teams this season, going 3-4-0. Augsburg swept then-No. 15 Hamline (3-0, 4-2) on Feb. 9-10, and snapped No. 2 Gustavus’s 18-game MIAC winning streak with a 5-4 OT win on Jan. 20, while dropping games to No. 2 Gustavus (5-1, 3-1), then-No. 4 UW-River Falls (3-1), and then-No. 7 UW-Eau Claire (3-1).

• LIGHTING THE LAMP: Kennedy Stein heads into post-season play as the Auggies’ goal-scoring leader with 16, one more than Emily Cronkhite, while Ella Olson has also reached double figures with 10 goals. … Stein and Cronkhite have both scored three goals in a game this season — Cronkhite netting the hat trick against St. Catherine on Nov. 10 and Stein scoring 3 times against St. Scholastica last Saturday. … Augsburg has five players with multiple game-winning goals this season. Olson owns four game-winners, while Nora Stepan has three, and Sydney Rydel, Tenley Stewart, and Emily Schoeberl have two each. 

• LENDING A HELPING HAND: Cronkhite and Schoeberl share the team lead in assists with 12. They are two of four Auggie players with at least 10 helpers this season, being joined by Olson and Stewart with 10 each. … Olson and Malia Schubert share the single-game season-high with three assists in a game — Schubert against St. Catherine on Nov. 10 and Olson vs. UW-Stevens Point on Dec. 8.

• POINT PRODUCERS: With her 15 goals and 12 assists, Cronkhite sits atop the team’s points race with 27, two up on Stein, with Olson sitting third with 20 points. Schoeberl (18), Stepan (17), Stewart (13), Rydel (11), and Elizabeth Fagerlind (10) have also posted at least 10 points this season. … Olson recorded a season-high a four-point night (1 G, 3 A) against UW-Superior on Nov. 4.

• BETWEEN THE PIPES: Augsburg has used three different goalies this season, with Chloe Stockinger seeing the brunt of the action between the pipes, compiling a 1.62 goals-against-average and .932 save percentage in 18 starts (1076:01). Marissa Paaske owns Augsburg’s other seven starts (405:51 minutes), owning a 1.48 GAA and .932 save %, while Charissa Prior (4.44 GAA, .500 save %, 13:31 minutes) has two relief appearances. … Stockinger has stopped 400 of the 429 shots she’s faced, and boasts four games of 30 or more saves — including a season-high 38-save effort against Saint Benedict on Jan. 26.

• WORKING OVERTIME: The Auggies have played three overtime games this season — winning all three. Augsburg beat St.  Catherine 4-3 on Nov. 11, Bethel 2-1 on Jan. 13, and Gustavus 5-4 on Jan. 20. All three OT wins were at home, and occurred on a Saturday.

• CRUNCHING THE NUMBERS: Augsburg has outscored its opponents 77-41 through 25 games, and hold an 834-580 advantage in shots on goal. … Augsburg holds a 25-13 scoring advantage in the first period, while outscoring its opponents 24-12 in the second and 24-16 in the third. … The Auggies have scored 20 power-play goals, going 20-for-99 (20.2 %) with the man advantage, while killing off 86 of their opponent’s 97 PP chances (88.7 %). … Augsburg recorded season-highs in goals (8), assists (11), and points (19) in its 8-X win over UW-Superior on Nov. 4, while their 49 shots on goal — and 39 shots allowed — against Saint Benedict on Jan. 26 were also season-highs.