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Saturday, February 21, 2004 |
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(Through Friiday, February 20) |
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The Cardinals got scoring from five different players en route to a 5-4 victory over St. Olaf. |
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Emily Kearns (Hopkins, Minn.) scored her team-leading 19th goal, giving her 96 for her career, while her three points vs. the Oles give her 147 career points, seven shy of the SMU record. … The Cardinals are now unbeaten in their last four games (3-0-1), outscoring their opponents 20-7 during that stretch. |
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WINONA, Minn. — With four games left in the MIAC season, Saint Mary's University women’s hockey coach Duncan Ryhorchuk figured his team needed four points to seal a fourth straight trip to the conference's post-season tournament.
Using that logic, with three games remaining, the Cardinals now need just two points.
The Cardinals picked up a key two points Friday night, getting goals form five different players en route to a 5-4 victory over St. Olaf.
With the win, SMU all but assured itself of another berth in the MIAC playoffs, moving into a third-place tie with the Oles, two points in front of Augsburg and six points ahead of sixth-place St. Catherine.
"This was a good win for us," said Ryhorchuk, whose team scored three straight goals in a nine-minute span in the second period, erasing an early 1-0 deficit and giving SMU a 3-1 lead. "We played pretty well early in the week (in their 4-0 win and 3-0 tie at Buffalo State), and that just seemed to carry over to tonight.
"It was good to see us spread the offense around a bit," continued Ryhorchuk. "Everyone got into the act, and that was good to see."
After spotting the Oles a 1-0 lead 59 seconds into the second period, SMU responded with back-to-back-to-back goals from Emily Kearns (Hopkins, Minn.), Kate Williams (Minnetonka, Minn.) and Jenny Hocum (Rochester, Minn.) to grab a 3-1 lead midway through the second period. St. Olaf pulled back to within one before the period ended, but SMU regained its two-goal lead on a goal by Melissa Mondo (Vadnais Heights, Minn.) 27 seconds into the third period.
St. Olaf cut the gap to one, 4-3 with its third powerplay goal of the season, but Katie Berg (Apple Valley, Minn.) gave SMU its two-goal lead back two minutes later. The Oles made it 5-4 with 11 seconds remaining in regulation, but that was as close as the Oles would get.
"(St. Olaf's) powerplay killed us," said Ryhorchuk. "We can't afford to be giving up three powerplay goals like that — we have to do a better job on special teams. But the bottom line is we got the win, and at this stage in the season, that's what's important."