Cardinals flex muscles in recording
3 straight lopsided wins last week

WINONA, Minn. — The Saint Mary’s University women’s hockey team extended its season-high winning streak to eight games with three straight wins last week.

But you won’t hear too much celebrating coming from the Cardinals’ locker room.

After all, beating up on conference newcomers St. Olaf and Hamline isn’t cause for much more than a pat on the back and a few congratulatory words from their coach.

Don’t get the Cardinals wrong, they aren’t being cocky or arrogant.

Far from it.

It’s just that their talent level — and the fact that they are in their third year of varsity existence, while the Oles and the Pipers are just getting their feet wet at the varsity level this season — made last week’s games rather one-sided.

“Those games were a perfect example of the difference between a first-year program and one that’s been around for a few years,” SMU coach Duncan Ryhorchuk said. “St. Olaf and Hamline are going to keep getting better. They have good (coaching) staffs who are going to bring in some good players. But right now, they’ve still got a ways to go.”

Unfortunately for the Oles and the Pipers, as SMU continues its run for a third straight conference championship, they became nothing more than road kill left in Cardinals’ wake.

The Cardinals routed St. Olaf 12-0 last Tuesday in a game in which SMU outshot the Oles 64-2 — including 26-0 in the Cardinals’ five-goal first period and 18-0 in their four-goal third period.

In their two-game series against Hamline, the Cardinals outscored the Pipers 16-1, outshot them 106-35 — including 63-15 in Friday’s 9-1 SMU rout and 43-20 in Sunday’s 7-0 win — and pretty much made life as an MIAC neophyte rather miserable.

All told, 17 different players scored at least one goal in the Cardinals’ three games last week — including a team-leading four by Missy Westergren (Lonsdale, Minn.) — while 21 of the 23 players who played in at least one of the three games recorded at least one point. Westergren and Tennie McCabe (Rochester, Minn.) did the most damage against the Oles, with each recording a hat trick, while Josie Nechodom (Oakdale, Minn.), Ruth Swanson (Shoreview, Minn.) and Andrea Kemp (Hastings, Minn.) all netting two goals against Hamline.

“I thought overall, we played pretty well,” understated Ryhorchuk, whose team is certain to face much stiffer tests over the next two weeks as they take on Concordia and St. Catherine. “We had a lot of different people contributing, and that’s always good to see.”

Ryhorchuk knows that the wins won’t be nearly as easy to come by this weekend, as the Cardinals play host to Concordia, which swept a pair of nonconference games against UW-Superior last weekend and comes in with a respectable 7-7-0 MIAC record.

“We’ve got to get ourselves focused and ready to play at the top of our game again,” admitted Ryhorchuk, noting that the Cardinals looked a little flat in Sunday’s game. “We’ve had a couple of weeks here where we’ve been a little lackadaisical. Hopefully we’ll be able to flip that switch and get back to playing the way we were before.

“We’ve got two very important weekends coming up and we need to make sure we’re ready to take care of business.”

FYI: Missy Westergren (Lonsdale, Minn.) scored four goals and added four assists as the Cardinals routed St. Olaf and Hamline last week. … The Cardinals outshot St. Olaf and Hamline 170-37 last week. … Westergren and Tennie McCabe (Rochester, Minn.) each had hat tricks in last Tuesday’s 12-0 rout of St. Olaf. … Evora Olson (Mendota Heights, Minn.) notched her first collegiate goal vs. Hamline. … Nitara Frost (North Mankato, Minn.) stopped all 22 shots she faced last week in shutting out St. Olaf and Hamline.