WINONA, Minn. — Last Thursday, the Saint Mary's University women's hockey team's offense struggled to generate any offense, managing just 19 shots on goal — and one goal — against Bethel.

The Royals, meanwhile, peppered SMU goalie Nikki Jung (Inver Grove Heights, Minn.) with 37 shots on goal.

Fortunately for SMU, Jung was outstanding as the SMU sophomore stopped 36 of the 37 shots she faced in helping the Cardinals to a 1-1 tie.

Two days later, the Cardinals were again outshot, as Bethel held SMU to 21 shots — and pelted Jung with 23 — in the teams' Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference rematch.

Jung turned in a repeat performance — again stopping all but one of the Royals' shots — and the Cardinals were a little more efficient on the other end, scoring on three of their 21 shots in posting the 3-1 victory.

"I thought we played well, certainly well enough to win both games," said SMU coach Duncan Ryhorchuk. "Our powerplay was very good (on Saturday) and we did a great job of killing off some questionable penalties in the third period (of Thursday's game)."

Melissa Mondo (Vadnais Heights, Minn.) scored twice for the Cardinals on Saturday and Amy Madden (Grand Rapids, Mich.) accounted for the other as SMU won for the first time since a 3-0 win over UW-Eau Claire on Jan. 29.

Mondo opened the scoring with the only goal of the first period, a powerplay tally at 16:02. Bethel pulled even with a powerplay goal of its own two minutes into the second period, but it was all SMU after that as Madden scored two minutes later — again on the powerplay — and Mondo sealed the win with SMU's third man-advantage goal of the game midway through the third period.

On Thursday, Val Rodriguez (Woodbury, Minn.) picked up SMU's lone goal, as the Cardinals posted their first tie since a 3-3 tie vs. Buffalo State on Feb. 16, 2004.

"That was one of those games where the end result isn't really a good tie," Ryhorchuk said. "And it's not necessarily a bad tie."

On the good side, SMU did pick up a key conference point. And with the race for the five MIAC playoff berths as tight as it is, every point is important.

On the bad side, the Cardinals were outshot 37-19 — including 16-4 in the second period.

After a scoreless first period, the Cardinals got on the board midway through the second period as Rodriguez netted her second goal in as many games, an unassisted tally at 12:16. The lead was short-lived, however, as Bethel's Amy Beitzel picked up a loose puck just inside the blue line and rifled a shot that eluded Jung on the stick side just a minute later.

"The effort is there, I can't find fault in the effort," said Ryhorchuk. "We just aren't putting the puck on net enough — we're getting clear shots, but then we try and get around one more player, and we lose it. We did a little better job (on Saturday), but we still need to put the puck on net and make (the opponent's) goalie make some saves — that's what teams are doing to us.

"We need to find a way to generate more offense, it's that simple."