WINONA, Minn. — Ask any coach, and they'll tell you that the key to a successful season is to have your team peak at the right time — playoff time.

And the Saint Mary's University women's hockey team — and goaltender Missie Meemken (St. Cloud, Minn.) in particular — did just that.

Unfortunately, the Cardinals' best — and Meemken's in particular — wasn't enough Friday evening, as St. Thomas made a second-period goal stand up in ousting SMU from the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference tournament with a 1-0 victory.

"I can't fault our effort — everyone played very well," said Ryhorchuk, whose team closed out its season at 11-10-6 overall. "Missie played great. Usually, when your goaltender can hold an opponent to one goal, you should win.

"Today, we didn't."

Which has been the Cardinals' Achilles' heel all season.

Friday's loss was the seventh time this season that the Cardinals have been shut out.

"You have to score goals to win hockey games, and our whole season has been that way — we just didn't score enough goals," said Ryhorchuk, whose team waited until the final five minutes before getting back-to-back goals from Tennie McCabe (Rochester, Minn.) and Josie Nechodom (Oakdale, Minn.) to beat Augsburg 2-1 in its MIAC Tournament-opener. "Defensively, we were solid, but we didn't capitalize on the scoring opportunities we had."

The Cardinals managed just 22 shots on UST goalie Danielle Mikolai, but more than a handful were from point-blank range. None, however, would get past the Tommies' junior goalie.

St. Thomas, meanwhile, pelted Meemken with 28 shots — including 21 in the first two periods combined.

After a scoreless first period, in which UST outshot the Cardinals 10-5, UST finally broke the ice at the 17-minute mark of the second period as the Tommies' Jenny Sorenson fired a shot past a fallen Meemken.

SMU threatened several times in the third period, but to no avail, as UST picked up its first win in 13 tries against the Cardinals.

"I guess we beat (St. Thomas) at the wrong time," said Ryhorchuk, whose team swept the teams' regular-season meeting this season, beating the Tommies 3-2 and 4-3 in overtime just last weekend. "Obviously, when you play a team three times in the last four games, they pretty much know what you are going to do — just like we knew exactly what they were going to do.

"It was a great hockey game, a game neither team really deserved to lose. Unfortunately, we were the ones that did."

* THIS AND THAT: The Cardinals' 1-0 loss to St. Thomas marked the seventh time this season SMU has been shut out. … The Cardinals were making their third straight post-season appearance. … Missie Meemken (St. Cloud, Minn.) stopped 53 of the 56 shots she faced in the MIAC Tournament. … Tennie McCabe (Rochester, Minn.) and Josie Nechodom (Oakdale, Minn.) accounted for SMU's lone two goals in the tournament — both coming in the final five minutes of their opening-round win over Augsburg. … It was the second post-season game-winner for Nechodom, who also scored the game-winning goal in SMU's 2-1 win over Williams at the AWCHA national tournament two years ago. … Senior Christy Hicks (Bloomington, Minn.) assisted both of SMU's goals vs. the Tommies, giving her 100 career points. … SMU's loss to St. Thomas was its first in 13 meetings vs. the Tommies all-time (11-1-1). … Emily Kearns (Hopkins, Minn.) who finished as the team's leading scorer (24 goals, 27 points), and Monica Deringer (Brooklyn Park, Minn.) were named First-Team All-MIAC this season. …Tasa Kostel (Rochester, Minn.) finished as the team's assist leader with seven. … SMU's season-ending loss snapped a season-high three-game winning streak. … The Cardinals closed out the season winning five of their last eight games (5-2-1).