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2003-2004 Record: 6-6-0 MIAC / 9-7-1 Overall
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| Last Week's Results: Fri., Feb. 6: Gustavus 4, Saint Mary's 1 Sat., Feb. 7: Gustavus 3, Saint Mary's 0 |
| Upcoming Games: Wed., Feb. 11: at Bethel, 7:05 p.m. Fri., Feb. 13: Bethel, 7:05 p.m. Sun., Feb. 15: at Buffalo State (N.Y.), 4 p.m. Mon., Feb. 16: at Buffalo State (N.Y.), 7 p.m. |
| This and That: Emily Kearns (Hopkins, Minn.) scored SMU's lone goal vs. the Gusties — netting her team-leading 15th of the season 52 seconds into Friday's 4-1 loss. … After Kearns' goal, SMU was outscored 7-0 by GAC. … SMU has now sandwiched two season-high three-game losing streaks around their lone win — a 5-2 victory vs. Augsburg over the last seven games. … During SMU's current 1-6 stretch, the Cardinals' have been outscored 19-10, including 19-5 in their sixth losses. … SMU's shutout loss on Saturday was the first time the Cardinals had been shut out since falling to St. Thomas 1-0 in the semifinals of last year's MIAC post-season tournament. … SMU is now stuck in a four-way tie for third place in the race for one of the five spots for the MIAC post-season tournament with St. Olaf, St. Catherine and Augsburg. SMU swept St. Catherine (5-0, 7-2), split with the Auggies (5-2, 1-2) and has yet to play St. Olaf. |
WINONA, Minn. — The Saint Mary's University women's hockey team's offensive woes took a turn last Saturday in the team's rematch with Gustavus.
Unfortunately for the Cardinals, those offensive woes took a turn for the worse.
The Cardinals, who had scored just 10 goals in their last six games — five of which came in a 5-2 win over Augsburg on Jan. 23 — were shut out for the first time this season, as Gustavus completed its Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference sweep of SMU with a 3-0 victory.
"Gustavus is a very, very good team — probably the best team we've faced all season," said SMU coach Duncan Ryhorchuk. "They stuck to their systems, skated hard and really bottled us up."
Ingrid Neve gave GAC (10-2-0 MIAC, 14-5-0 overall) all the offensive punch the Gusties would need on Saturday with her first-period, powerplay goal at 8:12. Josefin Pettersson and Annie Katz each chipped in third-period tallies for the Gusties, who have now won 10 straight conference games.
Amanda Gage (Lino Lakes, Minn.) did her part to keep the Cardinals in the game, stopping 37 shots — including all 14 she faced in the second period when SMU was outshot 14-0.
Scoring goals wasn't the only problem for the Cardinals vs. Gustavus — just generating any offense at all proved to be a Herculean task against the Gusties' smothering defense. The Cardinals — who were outshot 32-12 in Friday's 4-1 loss to GAC — managed just eight shots on goal (five in the first and three in the third) on Saturday as they dropped their third straight for the second time in their last seven games.
"Our special teams certainly weren't anything to brag about," said Ryhorchuk, whose team gave up three powerplay goals and a shorthanded tally to the Gusties. "On the powerplay, we just never seemed to get in sync. We were never able to get things set up.
"The key for us right now is to put this past weekend out of our minds and focus on what's coming us," continued Ryhorchuk, referring to Wednesday's MIAC game at Bethel. "We can't do anything about what happeed last weekend, but we can control what's ahead of us.
"We need to find a way to generate some offense — and we need to do it fast."