THE MATCHUP

Saint Mary's vs. Concordia vs. Friday, Feb. 25, 2005 SMU Ice Arena 7:05 p.m.

GAMEDAY PLAYER PROFILE

Laura Langen Year Freshman Position Forward Hometown New Lisbon, Wis.

For the official GameDay Program for today's game pdf / click here (pdf)

WINONA, Minn. — Heading into their weekend series against Augsburg, Saint Mary's University women's hockey coach Duncan Ryhorchuk predicted that his Cardinals would need to pick up at least four points in their final four games if they hoped to earn a spot in the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference postseason tournament.

Last Friday evening, the Cardinals took a step — albeit a small, one-point step — forward as they took advantage of Rebecca Jelenc's (Sheboygan, Wis.) second-period goal in earning a 1-1 split against the Auggies.

Unfortunately for the Cardinals, their steps weren't in the right direction in the teams' rematch on Saturday, as Augsburg once again held SMU to one goal — but scored three of its own — as the Auggies cruised to a 3-1 win.

"It's been the same thing all season — we don't generate a ton of good scoring opportunities, but the ones we do get, we aren't able to convert," said SMU coach Duncan Ryhorchuk, whose team is now 0-12-2 in games in which they score less than two goals. "I didn't think we moved the puck very well this weekend — our passes coming out of the zone weren't very crisp, and when you struggle in your defensive zone, it makes it that much tougher to get any offense going."

Despite the loss, the Cardinals are still in the driver's seat for the fifth and final MIAC playoff spot. The Cardinals, 6-8-2 (14 points) in the MIAC, are two points ahead of St. Benedict and Bethel, with SMU closing out the regular season with two games vs. Concordia, while St. Benedict takes on Bethel in its final two MIAC regular-season games.

A sweep of the Cobbers, and SMU is in — guaranteed. Two losses, and a Blazers' sweep, and SMU will be left on the outside looking in. If SMU splits and Bethel sweeps, the Cardinals are in on the first tiebreaker, having tied (1-1) and beaten the Royals (3-1).

If St. Benedict sweeps, then it gets really interesting.

If SMU and St. Benedict are tied, it would come down to the third tiebreaker criteria — goal differential vs. other playoff teams. Because SMU and St. Ben's split their regular-season series — CSB won the first game 3-1, while the Cardinals took Game 2, 4-2 (MIAC tiebreaker criteria No. 1) and the two teams' head-to-head goal differential is the same (criteria No. 2), SMU would enter the final weekend with a commanding 11-goal advantage over the Blazers (in goals-against vs. other playoff teams) with two games remaining.

"We've got to get our offense on track," said Ryhorchuk. "We can't keep averaging one goal a game and expect to win. We've got to generate more offensive chances — and then we've got to capitalize on them when we do get them."

Jelenc made the most of her opportunity in the second period of Friday's game, as the SMU sophomore netted her first career goal — on SMU's only shot of the second peirod.

Augsburg knotted the game 22 seconds into the third period and neither team could break the tie the rest of the way.

In Saturday's rematch, Augsburg jumped out to a 2-0 lead, before SMU's Jenny Hocum (Rochester, Minn.) cut the lead to 2-1 with her third goal of the season midway through the second period, but that was all the offense the Cardinals would muster.

"We know what's at stake — and we know what we have to do (this weekend)," said Ryhorchuk. "Now it's just a matter of going out and doing it."