WINONA, Minn. — For the Saint Mary's University women's hockey team, last Saturday's rematch against St. Catherine was almost an instant replay of Friday's performance.

Almost.

For the second straight game, the Cardinals spotted St. Catherine a two-goal first-period lead, and for the second straight game, Emily Kearns (Hopkins, Minn.) & Co. battled back to tie it at 2-2.

Unlike Friday, however, the Cardinals weren't able to come up with the game-winner in the third period as the two teams skated to a 2-2 tie.

"I'm happy with the weekend — we played pretty well overall, and I think coming away with three of four points is certainly a step in the right direction for us," said Ryhorchuk, who said last week that his team needed at least a win and a tie vs. the Wildcats if they hoped to remain in the MIAC playoff hunt.

And three of four points is exactly what the Cardinals got.

After surrendering back-to-back powerplay goals to St. Catherine's Deidre Lindstrom and Laurel Volenec in the first period, Kearns — who scored SMU's first two goals and assisted on Alissa Schultz's (LeSeuer, Minn.) third-period game-winner in Friday's 3-2 SMU victory — got the Cardinals within 2-1 with her team-leading 11th goal of the season eight minutes into the second period.

Christy Hicks (Bloomington, Minn.) netted her first goal of the season at the 16:19 mark of the third period to tie the game at 2-2, and neither team could come up with the game-winner over the final 3:41 of regulation or the five-minute overtime period.

Missie Meemken (St. Cloud, Minn.) stopped 21 of the 23 shots she faced — including a pair of point-blank attempts in OT, while St. Catherine's Morgan Kane finished with 34 saves.

"We had some good chances to win (Saturday's game) in the third period, but we couldn't put the puck in the net," said Ryhorchuk, whose team tied for the fourth time in its last seven games. "I thought offensively we dominated both games, but we just weren 't able to convert enough of those chances to come away with two wins.

"We would have loved to have won twice, but I'm happy with the three points," continued Ryhorchuk, whose team returns to action Wednesday in the first of two games vs. Bethel. "Right now we've got to find a way to start the game with the same kind of intensity that we are finishing games — we can't keep digging ourselves into two-goal first-period deficits and expect to be able to dig our way out."

* THIS AND THAT: Emily Kearns (Hopkins, Minn.) scored three goals vs. St. Catherine, pushing her team-leading total to 11. … Kearns — who has now scored five of the Cardinals' last seven goals — also tallied an assist vs. the Wildcats, and leads the team in points with 13. … Friday's win vs. CSC snapped a five-game winless streak (0-2-3) for the Cardinals. … Saturday's OT game was the fifth of the season for SMU — all five games have ended in ties. … SMU was outscored 4-0 in the first period vs. St. Catherine and has now been outscored 21-3 in the first period. … All four of SMU's wins have come against conference opponents.