WINONA, Minn. — It took the Saint Mary's University of Minnesota women's hockey team more than a period to get its offense warmed up—which comes as no surprise to coach Terry Mannor this year—but once they got on track, the Cardinals were virtually unstoppable.
 
Saint Mary's scored twice in the second period—including another tally in the period's final seconds—en route to a 3-1 Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference victory over Augsburg Saturday afternoon at the Saint Mary's Ice Arena.
 
"I was very, very happy with the way we played all weekend," said Mannor, whose team battled the Auggies to a 1-1 tie on Friday to complete their three-point conference weekend. "We played within our systems and we battled from start-to-finish in both games.
 
"It was great to see our offense come alive a bit," Mannor added. "To come away with three points this weekend is huge."
 
For the second straight night—and the fourth time in Saint Mary's last six games—the Cardinals headed to the locker room after 20 minutes of play deadlocked at 0-0.
 
Macki Fadness (Eau Claire, Wis.) broke the tie at 14:17 of the middle period, rifling a wrist shot over the shoulder of Augsburg goalie Erika Allen for her second goal of the season.
 
Jamie Henderson (Madison, Wis.) continued to own the Midas Touch in the offensive zone, as the Cardinal sophomore netted her team-leading 11^th goal of the season with 20 seconds remaining to give Saint Mary's a 2-0 lead.
 
It was the second straight day Henderson had found the back of the net late in the second stanza—scoring the Cardinals' only goal in Friday's 1-1 tie with just 0.4 seconds on the clock.
 
Augsburg cut the deficit to one, 2-1, on an unassisted power-play goal by Kayla Fuechtmann with just over six minutes remaining in regulation, but Rory Petrisin (High Bridge, N.J.) gave the Cardinals some breathing room with an empty-netter with 56 seconds remaining.
 
Tori Herrmann (Elk River, Minn.) finished with 32 saves in goal for the Cardinals—including 13 in the second period and 11 more in the third—while Allen stopped 19 of Saint Mary's 22 shots.
 
The Cardinals (5-5-2 MIAC, 6-10-3 overall) are back on their home ice on Friday, hosting Gustavus in a 7 p.m. MIAC game at the Saint Mary's Ice Arena. The two teams will then travel to the Don Roberts Ice Arena in St. Peter, Minn., for Saturday's 2 p.m. rematch.