Game Summary

WINONA, Minn. — When the Saint Mary's University women's hockey team faced UW-Stevens Point a year ago, the Cardinals failed to score a goal in losing 3-0.

A year later, the Cardinals' offense finally scored against the Pointers, getting a second-period goal from freshman Ashley Graf (South St. Paul, Minn.).

Unfortunately, the Pointers matched their offense output of a year ago, breaking a 1-1 tie with two third-period goals en route to a 3-1 nonconference win at the SMU Ice Arena Saturday evening.

"Stevens Point is a very good team," said Ryhorchuk, whose team was one of 26 teams to fall to the Pointers a year ago, when UWSP went 26-1. "We just never seemed to be able to get anything going offensively. When we were able to move the puck, we didn't catch the pass, or we couldn't control it, or we got beat in the 1-on-1 battles."

All mistakes, however, that can be corrected.

"It's early, and we are going to make mistakes," Ryhorchuk said. "What we need to do is learn from those mistakes and get better. The work ethic was there, we just need to improve in those other areas."

One area that was rock-solid against the Pointers was goaltender, where SMU's All-American goalie, Missie Meemken (St. Cloud, Minn.) was her usual brickwall self, stopping 46 of the 49 shots she faced.

"Missie played a great game," praised Ryhorchuk. "Problem is, we can't rely on her to stop 46 shots every night. We've got to do a better job of not letting our opponents get so many offensive opportunities."

The Pointers peppered Meemken with 16 shots in the first period, but the junior goalie stood firm, helping SMU to a 0-0 tie after the game's opening 20 minutes. UWSP finally broke through midway through the second period on a goal by Emily Teachout.

The Cardinals knotted the game at 1-1 on Graf's first-ever collegiate goal with less than four minutes remaining in the period as the teams went into the locker room tied at 1-1.

The Pointers wasted little time taking the lead for good as Pam Stohr rifled a shot that slipped through Meemken's pads 51 seconds into the final period. Tracy Truckey added UWSP's second powerplay goal at the 13:32 mark to round out the scoring.

"Mentally, we were not sharp," said Ryhorchuk. "We took way too many penalties (SMU was whistled for nine penalties for 18 minutes). When you spend that much time in the penalty box, it's tough to get into any type of flow.

"Hopefully we can correct that (Sunday in the teams' rematch)."