Box Score After narrowly escaping Saint Mary's University Friday night on its home ice, the St. Catherine University hockey team hoped it could pick up its first Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) sweep of the season in a rematch with the Cardinals more convincing fashion. But after finding themselves down 3-1 early in the third period, the Wildcats had to come up with some late game heroics to rally for three third-period goals to defeat the Cardinals 4-3 Saturday afternoon in Winona, Minn. 

"I would like to think we learned a little bit about our team today," said Head Coach Brad Marshall. "Offensively, we played our best third period in a long time. Everyone played well in that last 20 minutes, including Alex Hall (Burnsville, Minn.). After the third goal, she buckled down and made every save she was supposed to make plus one or two more." 

Hall picked up her third win of the season with a 40-save effort which is her highest total in net this season. In the third period, Hall gave the Wildcats a chance for the comeback win stopping 17 of 18 shots faced. 

The game started off in similar fashion to Friday's contest as the Cardinals rattled off a quick power play goal off the stick of team point leader Breanna Peterson. The Wildcats' rebounded with a power play goal of their own three minutes later when Kira Kuntz (Dickinson, N.D.) scored her first of two goals on a pass from Lindsey Klein (Shoreview, Minn.) who recorded her first colelgiate point with the assist. 

The Cardinals would take back the lead 2-1 at the 11:11 mark in the second period before building their lead to 3-1 with another power play goal from Kassie Lien at six minutes into the third. 

But the Wildcats were able to find new life when  Cassie Thomas (Northfield, Minn.) scored her first collegiate goal on a pass from Jordan Solheim (Thief River Falls, Minn.) less than two minutes later. The Wildcats found the equalizer again on a power play goal from Kuntz at 15:38, before Kasey Evans (Burnsville, Minn.) buried the game-winner at 17:52. 

Mallory Ryan (Cottage Grove, Minn.) and Shelby Salmonsen (Faribault, Minn.) each added an assist on the final two goals to complete three-point weekends, while Kuntz and Solheim also had three-points in the series to lead the Wildcats offensively. 

"This is a nice way to go into the break," said Marshall, "with everyone feeling good about our last game and bonding as a team."

With the win, the Wildcats are now 4-1-1 in the MIAC and 5-3-1 overall heading into the semester break. The Wildcats return to action for a two-game series Jan. 3-4 against Wesleyan University in Middletown, Conn. They will then return home for a non-conference contest against Concordia University (Wis.) on Sunday, Jan. 12, before opening up MIAC play again the University of St. Thomas Jan. 17-18. 

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