Box Score Game Summary | GameDay Preview

NORTHFIELD, Minn. — When Saturday's season finale against St. Olaf began, win or lose, the Saint Mary's University women's hockey team had a shot at making a second straight trip to the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference playoffs.

By the time SMU took the ice for the third period, the MIAC playoff picture was crystal clear — the Cardinals had to beat or tie the Oles to earn one of the conference's five post-season playoff invitations.

Thanks to Concordia's second straight tie against playoff-bound St. Thomas earlier in the day, losing to the Oles was no longer an option.

Unfortunately for the Cardinals, they entered Saturday's final 20 minutes trailing 2-1 and St. Olaf scored a pair of unanswered goals in the game's final three minutes — the second into an empty net — to lift the Oles to a 4-2 victory.

“It's definitely a tough way to have the season come to an end,” said SMU coach Terry Mannor, whose team closed out its season with an 11-11-3 overall record, including an 8-7-3 mark in the conference. “It just goes to show you how tight the conference is and how important every shift of every game is.”

The Oles got on the board first, as Margot Fleming scored her eighth goal of the season with 3:07 remaining in the opening period, then made it 2-0 seven minutes into the second on a power play goal by Katie Iraci.

SMU cut the gap to 2-1 on a Dana Kreuser (Maplewood, Minn.) goal — the first of back-to-back Cardinal powerplay goals — with 35 seconds left in the second period, while Haley Coolsaet (Grosse Island, Mich.) tied the game at 2-2 at 8:59 of the third period.

That, however, would be as close as SMU would get, as St. Olaf's Nicole Stumpf broke the 2-2 deadlock at 16:45 and Fleming added her second of the game into an empty net with 48 seconds remaining to seal the win.

“I thought we played extremely well,” Mannor said. “It was a good back-and-forth game, but I thought we clearly outplayed them. Give St. Olaf credit, they did what they had to do.

“We're a bit on the young side,” Mannor added, noting that the Cardinals graduate just four seniors. “Hopefully we can use this as a learning experience and come back (next year) ready to take that next step.”