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WINONA, Minn. — For Saint Mary's University women's hockey coach Terry Mannor, there was one big silver lining to Saturday's 5-1 loss to Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference rival St. Olaf — it didn't count in the conference standings.

“You never like to lose, but as we head into down the home stretch, it's the conference games that matter,” said Mannor, whose team gave up two goals in both the second and third periods in falling to the Oles in a rare nonconference game between conference foes. “It's nice to get a look at (St. Olaf), so that we know what to expect when we face them in conference play (in February).

“Hopefully we'll be able to put together a little better performance that we did today.”

The Oles got on the board first as Katie Iraci netted the first of her two goals on the afternoon at 12:36 of the opening period. Iraci pushed that advantage to 2-0 midway through the second, sneaking behind the Cardinal defense and beating SMU goalie Kaye Collier (Hibbing, Minn.). Alex Meyer also beat Collier in the second stanza, netting her fourth of the year at 17:06.

Nicole Olson (New Brighton, Minn.) cut the gap to 3-1 before the second period ended, but that was all the offense the Cardinals could muster, while the Oles tacked on two more goals in the game's final 20 minutes to ice the win.

Collier finished with 26 saves in goal for Cardinals, who fall to 6-4-3 heading into next weekend's two-game conference series against Bethel. SMU travels to Blaine, Minn., for Friday's 7 p.m. matchup with the Royals, before returning home on Saturday for a 4 p.m. game at the SMU Ice Arena.