DULUTH, Minn. — The Saint Mary's University women's hockey team made sure that last Saturday's streak-snapping 2-1 loss to Saint Benedict was nothing more that a bump in the road in the Cardinals' drive for a post-season invitation.
And Friday evening, the Cardinals officially locked up that invite, and mapped out their first post-season stop — the MIAC Playoffs.
The Cardinals certainly had a flair for the dramatic in punching their post-season ticket — getting a power-play goal from
Celia Midtbo (Minneapolis, Minn.) with 1:19 remaining and the game-winner from
Reese Heitzman (Hermantown, Minn.) 3:03 into overtime — to lift SMU to a 2-1 victory over St. Scholastica at Mars Lakeview Arena.
Saint Mary's will make its 14th MIAC Playoff appearance when the five-team post-season kicks off in two weeks, but with three regular-season games remaining, the Cardinals still have some unfinished business to take care of — like securing a home playoff game.
Saint Mary's is currently tied with Hamline for third place with 32 points, one point behind Augsburg. Gustavus has already locked up the conference's regular-season, sitting with 43 points with nine possible points remaining.
The Cardinals controlled play in the first period against CSS on Friday, outshooting the Saints 13-7, but came up empty in the goal-scoring department, and headed into the first intermission still deadlocked at 0-0.
St. Scholastica needed just two shots into the second period strike first, as CSS's Allie Bussey beat SMU goalie
Celeste Rimstad (Richfield, Minn.) just four minutes into the second period to give the Saints a 1-0 advantage.
Saint Mary's continued to pepper CSS goalie Makenzie Cole in the middle period, firing 20 more shots at the Saints' sophomore, but as was the case in the first period, the Cardinals came up empty — leaving them staring at a one-goal deficit with 20 minutes to play.
And with Cole continuing to play her role as a brick wall — making 18 more saves in the third period — the Cardinals finally were able to sneak one past, as Midtbo netted her sixth goal in the last four games, with 1:19 on the clock to send the game into overtime.
And set up Heitzman's OT heroics.
The freshman picked up her team-leading 15th goal of the season — on SMU's eight shot of the five-minute overtime period — to send the Cardinals into the post-season.
Rimstad, making her 22nd straight start in goal, finished with 22 saves for the Cardinals, while Cole closed out the game with 60 saves in goal for the Saints.
The Cardinals (11-4-0 MIAC, 17-5-0 overall) and Saints will return to Mars Lakeview Arena in Duluth, Minn., for Saturday's second game of the two-game conference series. Puck drop is set for 2 p.m.
