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 two games, however, the offense has gone on an unscheduled hiatus — and now the Cardinals are in the midst of a two-game losing streak.

St. Thomas' Vanessa Miller was in on both UST goals — scoring the first and assisting on the second — as the Tommies held off the Cardinals 2-1 Friday evening at the St. Thomas Academy rink.

"We had our chances, the puck just didn't go in — again," said SMU coach Duncan Ryhorchuk, whose team has now lost back-to-back games for the first time this season. "It's kind of the same as our game last weekend (against St. Benedict, also a 2-1 loss) — we created some really good scoring opportunities, but we didn't finish. We didn't outshoot (St. Thomas) like we did St. Ben's, but we certainly had our share of good scoring chances."

The Tommies, who are now a perfect 7-0-0 in conference play, got on the board first on 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.

"St. Thomas is a very good team — they move the puck well, they play solid defense. They're tough," said Ryhorchuk, whose team plays host to the Tommies Saturday afternoon in the second game of the teams' two-game MIAC series. "We've got to come back (Saturday) 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."