By
DONNY NADEAU
Saint Mary's Sports Information Director
WINONA, Minn. — Try as they might, the Saint Mary's women's hockey team did not have an answer to the UW-Eau Claire quick-strike offensive attack.
The Blugolds scored goals in the opening minutes of both the first and second periods, and the Cardinals never recovered in falling to UW-Eau Claire 3-1 in a nonconference game Saturday at the Saint Mary's Ice Arena.
UW-Eau Claire did not even give the fans a chance to find their seats before netting its first goal of the game, as Holly Turnbull beat Cardinal goalie
Ashley Corcoran (Red Wing, Minn.) on the Blugolds' first shot of the game 36 seconds into the opening period.
Corcoran and the Cardinals settled things down for the rest of the first period, as the Saint Mary's sophomore goalie stopped the final 11 Blugolds shots to keep it a one-goal game after the opening 20 minutes.
The Blugolds' struck quickly again in the second, as Courtney Wittig tallied the first of her two goals two minutes into the stanza. Wittig beat Corcoran for a second time in the middle frame, finding the back of the net at 11:25 to push the UW-Eau Claire lead to 3-0.
Saint Mary's finally broke through at 19:16 of the period, as
Bailey Wendt (Coon Rapids, Minn.) scored her team-leading sixth goal of the season to cut the deficit to 3-1 heading into the game's final 20 minutes.
There would be no early period Blugold goal this time around—but, unfortunately, there would be no Cardinal offensive fireworks, either, as UW-Eau Claire kept Saint Mary's off the board in the final period to clinch its fifth win in eight games (5-2-1).
Corcoran finished with 36 saves in goal for the Cardinals—sandwiching 11-save efforts in the first and third periods around a 14-save performance in the second—while UW-Eau Claire goalie Erin Connolly stopped 20 of Saint Mary's 21 shots.
The Cardinals (3-4-0 overall) return to Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference play next weekend, traveling to Dave Torrey Arena in St. Cloud, Minn., for a pair of games against Saint Benedict. Saint Mary's and CSB will square off a 7 p.m. on Friday, before completing the two-game series with a 2 p.m. matinee the following afternoon.
