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2003-2004 Record: 11-7-0 MIAC / 15-8-2 Overall
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| Last Week's Results: Wed., Feb. 25: Saint Mary's 8, Hamline 0 Sat., Feb. 28: Saint Mary's 5, Hamline 0 |
| Upcoming Games: Tues., March 2: MIAC Playoffs Augsburg at Saint Mary's, 5 p.m. |
| This and That: The Cardinals are making their third striaght MIAC playoff appearance. … The Cardinals split their regular-season seires vs. Augsburg, their opponent in the playoff's opening round — winning 5-2 and losing 2-1. … SMU has won six of its last eight (6-1-1), with the lone loss a 3-1 decision to third-seeded St. Olaf. During that stretch, the Cardinals have outscored their opponents 34-10, with five shutout victories. … Emily Kearns (Hopkins, Minn.) leads the team in all three offensive categories — goals (22), asssists (21) and points (43). … Her two goals vs. Hamline last Saturday leave her one short of becoming SMU's first-ever 100-goal career scorer. She is also one point shy of tying Missy Westergren's career point total of 154. … SMU's goaltending tandem of Nikki Jung (Inver Grove Heights, Minn.) and Amanda Gage (Lino Lakes, Minn.) boast a 1.63 goals-against-average and a .932 save percentage. … In their regular-season finale vs. Hamline, SMU held the Pipers to just five shots on goal — none in the third period. |
Cardinals head into playoff opener on a high note
WINONA, Minn. — It was all about getting the job done Saturday afternoon for the Saint Mary's University women's hockey team.
Make that jobs.
And while the Cardinals did get one job done in impressive fashion — outshooting Hamline 52-2-5 en route to a regular season-ending 5-0 victory at the SMU Ice Arena — SMU couldn't quite get the other two finished.
No matter how hard they tried.
Senior Emily Kearns (Hopkins, Minn.) — one of six Cardinal seniors making their final regular-season home appearance — entered Saturday's game needing three goals to become the first-ever SMU women's player to net 100 career goals.
She got two.
Kearns also needed just three points to tie Missy Westergren for the career lead in points.
She got two.
"Emily had a strong game — everyone on this team was hoping she could eclipse both of those milestones at home on Senior Day," said SMU coach Duncan Ryhorchuk, whose team finished in a third-place tie with St. Olaf and Augsburg, and through the MIAC's tie-breaker system, ended up with the No. 4 seed and will host Augsburg in Tuesday's opening round of the MIAC Playoffs. "I thought she had it (the 100th career goal and 154th career point) a couple of times, but their goal (Rachael Young) made some big saves on her."
After a scoreless first period, Kearns got the Cardinals on the board 59 seconds into the second period, netting her 21st of the season off a feed from Jenny Hocum (Rochester, Minn.). Aja Walters (Fairmont, Minn.) made it 2-0 less than two minutes later, and Melissa Mondo (Vadnais Heights, Minn.) tallied her 15th of the season midway through the period as the Cardinals took a 3-0 cushion into the locker room after 40 minutes of play.
Kearns came out fast again in the third, breaking in alone on Young and beating the Hamline goalie just 45 seconds into the period. Hocum then closed out the scoring at 7:32, taking a centering pass from Katie Berg (Apple Valley, Minn.) and beating Young to the glove side.
"I thought we played fairly well," said Ryhorchuk, whose team not only outshot the Pipers 52-5 — but held Hamline without a shot on goal the entire third period. "But you also have to keep things in perspective — the competition we face (in the playoffs) is going to be at a much high level than this game was.
"It's nice to get the win and go into the playoffs on a high note, but we are going to have to put together a complete 60 minutes of hockey if we are going to get anywhere (in the postseason," continued Ryhorchuk, whose team moved to 11-7-0 in the MIAC and 15-8-2 overall with the win. "I know we are capable of getting to the conference playoff championship and beyond — but we have to be at our best to do it."