WINONA, Minn. — When the Saint Mary's University women's hockey team was in the midst of their season-high eight-game winning streak, the Cardinals' offense was virtually unstoppable, scoring 35 goals in those eight games.

In SMU's last three games, however, the offense has gone on an unscheduled hiatus — and now the Cardinals are in the midst of a three-game losing streak.

St. Thomas scored once in each of the first two periods en route to a 2-1 win over the Cardinals last Friday, then completed the sweep with a 4-1 win on Saturday.

"It's not like we are playing that poorly," said SMU coach Duncan Ryhorchuk, whose team managed just a pair of second-period goals against the Tommies, while UST scored twice in each of the three periods en route to the confernece sweep. "We're getting a lot of good scoring chances, we just can't seem to put the puck in the net."

On Friday, the Tommies got on the board first on Vanessa Miller's first goal of the season at the 7:45 mark of the first period. Miller then assisted on Tomery Stolz's seventh goal of the season 11 minutes into the second period, before the Cardinals finally got on the board when Melissa Mondo (Vadnais Heights, Minn.) beat UST goalie Katie Jetland with just two seconds remaining in the second period.

The Tommies broke open a 1-1 game on Saturday with three unanswered goals, including a pair in the third period en route to their eighth straight MIAC win.

UST opened the scoring at the 9:14 mark of the first period, as Allison O'Hara took a pass from Maggie Toft and beat SMU goalie Nikki Jung (Inver Grove Heights, Minn.). SMU tied the game five minutes into the second period, as Emily Kearns (Hopkins, Minn.) netted her team-leading 11th goal of the season. The goal also extended Kearns' point-scoring streak to eight games.

From there, however, it was all St. Thomas, as the Tommies got the eventual game-winner at 9:57 of the second period on a goal by Jenny Sorensen, then put it out of reach with Andrea Schilling's tally at 9:34 of the third period and Jordan Benson's empty-netter with 12 seconds remaining.

Jung finished with 32 saves for the Cardinals, who have not scored more than one goal since a 5-2 win over St. Benedict on Jan. 9.

"St. Thomas is a very good team — they move the puck well, they play solid defense. They're tough," said Ryhorchuk. "We've got to come back this weekend against Augsburg and play at the top of our game — and hopefully get a few of those bounces to go our way so that we can get our offense back on track."