ST. PAUL, Minn. — Despite scoring the game's first goal, the Saint Mary's University of Minnesota women's hockey team spent most of Friday evening's Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference game against St. Catherine playing catch-up.
 
And no matter how hard the Cardinals tried, they could not quite catch the front-running Wildcats.
 
St. Catherine scored three unanswered goals—erasing a 1-0 first-period deficit—and held off a late Saint Mary's charge in handing the Cardinals a 5-3 conference setback at Drake Arena.
 
Jamie Henderson (Madison, Wis.) broke the ice midway through the first period giving the Cardinals the 1-0 advantage with a power-play tally off an assist from Mary Bodick (Savage, Minn.).
 
The lead, however, lasted less than three minutes, as Cassie Thomas netted the equalizer for St. Catherine, and Melissa Smith followed with her first of the season before the first period was over to give the Wildcats their first lead of the game, 2-1.
 
St. Catherine pushed that advantage to 3-1 on a goal by Lexi Muller at 13:34 of the middle period, only to have Saint Mary's close the gap to 3-2 on an unassisted tally by Kassie Lien (Grantsburg, Wis.) with 2:23 remaining in the middle frame.
 
The Wildcats would again try to pull away in the third period, pushing its lead back to two, 4-3 when Anna Carman beat Cardinal goalie Ashley Corcoran (Red Wing, Minn.) at 8:26 of the final stanza.
 
But again, the Cardinals would answer, as Henderson netted her second of the game—and team-leading 11^th of the season—with less than four minutes remaining in regulation.
 
That, however, would be as close as the Cardinals would get, as St. Catherine's Morgan Tentis netted an empty net goal with 11 seconds remaining to seal the win for the Wildcats.
 
Corcoran finished with 24 saves in goal for the Cardinals, while Abbi White stopped 23 of Saint Mary's 26 shots in goal for the Wildcats.
 
The Cardinals (3-11-3 MIAC, 6-15-3 Overall) and Wildcats close out their regular-season schedules on Saturday, heading to the Saint Mary's Ice Arena for a 2 p.m. rematch.