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Offensive game of hide-and-seek proves costly as SMU falls, 6-1
Heading into Saturday's Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference game against Hamline, the Cardinals had scored six goals in their last two games — both wins.
In their previous seven games, however, the Cardinals managed just eight goals — and they lost all seven games.
Saturday evening, the game of offensive hide-and-seek continued, as SMU managed just one goal, as the Pipers rolled to a 6-1 victory over the Cardinals at the SMU Ice Arena.
"In my 11 years of coaching I have never seen a team go from one extreme to the other the way this team does," said SMU coach Terry Mannor, whose team had gotten goals from Amy Madden (East Grand Rapids, Mich.) and Laura Mueller (St. Paul, Minn.) en route to Friday's 2-1 victory over the Pipers. "We did it last weekend (in a 6-3 loss, 4-0 win vs. Concordia) and we did it again this weekend.
"We are just on such a rollercoaster ride right now — I don't know what to expect from one game to the next."
After holding Hamline to just one second-period goal on Friday, the Cardinals could not shut down the Pipers' high-powered offensive attack for a second straight game, as Hamline broke open a one-goal game with three second-period goals.
"We didn't play that poorly in the first period, but we did not play well at all in the second," said Mannor, whose team has struggled in the second period all season, getting outscored 19-6 in the game's middle stanza. "(Hamline) is a good team, the move the puck well and they've got some players that can shoot the puck.
"But they aren't five goals better than we are — we just did not come ready to play today."
The Pipers pushed their lead to 5-0 four minutes into the third period, before Madden broke the ice for the Cardinals, netting her second goal of the weekend and sixth of the season, but that was all the offense SMU would muster.
"I'm at a loss for words," said Mannor. "We've got to find a way to get some consistency — we've got to get off this rollercoaster."