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Sunday, January 20, 2002 |
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(Through Saturday, January 19) |
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Christy Hicks (Bloomington, Minn.) and Emily Kearns (Hopkins, Minn.) each scored two goals as the Cardinals scored 10 unanswered goals en route to a 10-1 victory over the Pipers Saturday afternoon at the Fairgrounds Coliseum. |
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The Cardinals swept their two-game conference series against the Pipers a year ago, getting two goals each from Josie Nechodom (Oakdale, Minn.) and Ruth Swanson in the 9-1 Game 1 victory, and the 20-save shutout goaltending of Nitara Frost (North Mankato, Minn.) in a 7-0 win in Game 2. |
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The Cardinals have now outscored the Pipers 26-2 in their three meetings — including 9-1 and 7-0 last season. … Along with their two goals, Christy Hicks (Bloomington, Minn.) added three assists and Emily Kearns (Hopkins, Minn.) dished out two vs. the Pipers. … Defenseman Mo Hayes (Cottage Grove, Minn.) also finished with three assists and was on the ice for seven of the Cardinals’ 10 goals. … SMU’s 10 goals were its second-highest output of the season, behind an 11-0 drubbing of Bethel. … Kearns’ four-point night pushes her team-leading total to 19, one ahead of Hicks. … Hicks and Kearns are also tied for the team lead in goals (11), while Hayes’ 13 assists are tops on the team. … The Cardinals have six players with 10 or more points. … The Cardinals have now won four straight and six of their last seven. … The Cardinals have scored 21 goals in both the second and third periods, while their opponents have not scored more than 10 goals in any of the three periods. |
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Sophomore / Forward Hometown Major |
WINONA, Minn. — In each of their last three games, the Saint Mary's University women's hockey team has only needed to score one goal to come away with a victory.
That's because the Cardinals had hopped on the shoulders of goaltenders Missie Meemken (St. Cloud, Minn.) and Nitara Frost (North Mankato, Minn.) and went along for the ride as SMU rolled to shutout wins of 6-0 and 2-0 over St. Olaf and 2-0 against UW-Eau Claire.
Hamline knew all about the Cardinals' stingy defense, but the Pipers weren't impressed, as they not only broke SMU's three-game shutout streak, but they did so just 1:43 into the first period of Saturday's Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference game.
Problem was, while the Pipers may have done something St. Olaf and Eau Claire couldn't, that is, find a way to turn the red light on behind an SMU goalie, they weren't able to solve what proved to be a much larger problem — how to stop the Cardinals' high-powered offense.
After giving up the early first-period goal, the Cardinals erupted for 10 unanswered goals en route to a 10-1 victory.
"We really came out sluggish in the first period," said SMU coach Duncan Ryhorchuk, whose team extended its winning streak to four straight in improving to 8-2-0 in the MIAC and 10-4-1 overall. "That first period was definitely not one of the better periods we've played this year."
But the second and the third sure were.
"I think the first period was a bit of a wake-up call for us," admitted Ryhorchuk, whose team got goals from Emily Kearns (Hopkins, Minn.) and Christy Hicks (Bloomington, Minn.) two minutes apart late in the first period to take a 2-1 advantage into the first-period intermission. "Once we got things going, I thought we played very well. In that second period, we were just flying out there. We were unstoppable."
Just ask Hamline goalie Emily Krinhop.
Krinhop faced 20 shots in the second period alone, including shots from Tasa Kostel (Rochester, Minn.), Beth Zubrzycki (South St. Paul, Minn.), Kearns, Josie Nechodom (Oakdale, Minn.), Kate Williams (Minnetonka, Minn.) and Missy Westergren (Lonsdale, Minn.) that all eluded the Piper netminder.
The Cardinals' offensive barrage carried over into the third period as well, as SMU pelted Krinhop with 11 more shots, including goals from Hicks and Jaimie Mussehl (South St. Paul, Minn.).
"(The Fairgrounds Coliseum) is a tough place to play — but that's no excuse for the way we came out to start the game," admitted Ryhorchuk, whose team will put its four-game win streak on the line this afternoon when the Cardinals and Pipers square off for the second game of the two-game conference series. "I wasn't very happy with our performance in that first period, but hopefully we got that out of our system. We need to find a way to play like we did in the second and third periods for an entire game."