WINONA, Minn. — When Duncan Ryhorchuk set up his schedule for the 2002-2003 season, he knew the early nonconference games were going to be tough.

But he didn't expect them to be this tough.

After four games, the Cardinals are still searching for their first win.

UW-Eau Claire goaltender Sara Steinhoff stopped all 27 shots she faced as the Blugolds handed the Cardinals their second shutout loss of the season, 2-0 Saturday evening.

"We knew we were going to be facing some tough competition," said Ryhorchuk, whose team opened the season with back-to-back losses to UW-Stevens Point (3-1 and 7-0), before rallying from two goals down in the third period to tie UW-River Falls 2-2 Friday. "It's not that we played that poorly — we outshot them 27-14 — we just weren't able to capitalize on the scoring opportunities that we had.

"We made two mistakes in our offensive zone, and UW-Eau Claire converted both of them into goals — that was the difference in the game."

Claire Parda converted a 2-on-1 midway through the first period to give the Blugolds a 1-0 advantage, and Jamie Hewitt gave UW-Eau Claire a two-goal advantage, blocking an SMU shot at the UWEC blueline and racing in all alone on Cardinal goalie Missie Meemken (St. Cloud, Minn.).

Unlike Friday night, however — when SMU got back-to-back third-period goals from Beth Zubrzycki (South St. Paul, Minn.) and Tasa Kostel (Rochester, Minn.) to salvage that 2-2 tie against UW-River Falls — there were no late-game heroics against the Blugolds.

"Obviously, we would have liked to open the season 3-0-1, but it didn't work out that way, so now we have to regroup and go from here," said Ryhorchuk, whose team will take its 0-3-1 record into next weekend's conference opener against Hamline. "Our main focus now has got to be on the conference season. We can't feel sorry for ourselves for starting 0-3-1, we have to put all our focus and energy into the conference schedule.

"We are not playing well as a team right now," Ryhorchuk continued. "We've got to get everyone on the same page, playing at the same high intensity level. Right now, we don't have that."

* THIS AND THAT: Beth Zubrzycki's (South St. Paul, Minn.) third-period goal against UW-River Falls last Friday snapped a scoreless streak of nearly 124 minutes, dating back to Ashley Graf's (South St. Paul, Minn.) goal in the first period of SMU's season-opening 3-1 loss to UW-Stevens Point. … Tasa Kostel (Rochester, Minn.) accounted for the Cardinals' other goal vs. the Falcons last Friday. … Kostel had a hand in both of SMU's goals vs. UW-River Falls, also assisting on Zubrzycki's goal. … Kostel's two points are a team high. … The Cardinals' 0-3-1 start is their worst in school history and their current four-game winless streak is the team's longest since an 0-4-0 slide during their inaugural season in 1998-99 season.