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Saturday, January 11, 2003 |
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(Through Friday, January 10) |
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The Cardinals came from behind on three separate occasions before settling for a 3-3 tie with defending MIAC regular-season champion Gustavus Friday evening in St. Peter, Minn. |
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The Cardinals and Gusties met four times a year ago. The Gusties had the upper hand in the teams' regular-season meetings, winning 3-0 and 4-0, but SMU picked up a key, 2-1 win over GAC in the title game of the MIAC Tournament, which earned the Cardinals an automatic berth in the NCAA Division III national tournament — where they faced Gustavus in the opening round. The Gusties scored once in the first period and again in the third en route to the 2-0 win in that fourth meeting. |
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The Cardinals have now tied three of their last four games — including a 1-1 deadlock with Concordia, a 2-2 stalemate with Lake Forest and Friday’s 3-3 tie with Gustavus. … Emily Kearns (Hopkins, Minn.) netted her team-leading seventh and eighth goals of the season vs. GAC. … Jaimie Mussehl (South St. Paul, Minn.) tallied SMU’s other goal Friday. … Missie Meemken (St. Cloud, Minn.) stopped 32 Gustie shots, while SMU managed just 17 shots on the Gustavus goal. |
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Sophomore / Defense Hometown Major |
WINONA, Minn. — Sometimes a tie can feel more like a win, while other times, a tie can feel more like a loss.
Last Sunday, when Lake Forest rallied for two goals in the third period to salvage a 2-2 tie with the Saint Mary's University women's hockey team, the Cardinals certainly felt like it was a game they had lost.
Friday evening, the Cardinals were forced to settle for their second straight tie, a 3-3 decision with Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference rival Gustavus — but this tie most definitely felt like a win.
The Cardinals trailed on three separate occasions — 1-0, 2-1 and 3-2 — and each time rallied to pull even, giving SMU coach Duncan Ryhorchuk plenty to smile about.
"We played very well," said the SMU coach, whose team moved to 3-2-2 in the MIAC and 3-6-4 overall. "It was a typical Gustavus-Saint Mary's game, back-and-forth action, good scoring opportunities, good goaltending — it was a great game to be a part of."
Bobee Jo Lang got the Gusties on the board first, beating SMU goalie Missie Meemken (St. Cloud, Minn.) with a shot just 3:11 into the opening period. The Cardinals didn't waste any time getting that goal back as Emily Kearns (Hopkins, Minn.) netted her seventh of the season — and first of two on the night — to tie the game 1-1 just over a minute later.
Nicole Guimond put the Gusties back on top before the first period ended, but Kearns made it a 2-2 game with the only goal of the second period. Laura Stypulkowski tallied GAC's third goal at the 2:59 mark of the third period, while SMU's Jaimie Mussehl (South St. Paul, Minn.) knotted the game a third time midway through the third.
"We had plenty of good scoring chances, and so did (Gustavus)," Ryhorchuk said. "It was good to see us keep battling. Everytime Gustavus scored, we just worked that much harder. We never got down or anything like that, we just kept battling."
And their hard work paid off — sort of.
"Sure, we would have loved to have come out of this with a win, but when you look at where we are in the MIAC (standings), we'll take all the points we can get," said Ryhorchuk, whose team hosts the Gusties in the second game of their home-and-home series Saturday afternoon. "Hopefully this tie will give us the momentum heading into (Saturday's) game. This was a game that could have gone either way, and I'm sure we are going to be in for more of the same (Saturday)."