WINONA, MINN. – The best way to end a season is with a victory. For the St. Catherine University hockey team, Saturday's win over the Saint Mary's University Cardinals was extra sweet. Because of the 3-1 victory, the Wildcats were able to earn their first sweep over a Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) opponent and end their season on the highest note possible.

Just like in Friday's series opener, the Cardinals managed to strike first with another power play goal in the first period. This time, though, it was Lindsay Paschke who beat Kristen Pechacek (Park Falls, Wis. / Chequamegon) on a back door slide to give Saint Mary's a 1-0 lead over St. Kate's with 3:28 remaining in the first period.

The Wildcats were unable to even the score in the remaining first period despite matching the Cardinals with nine shots on goal. However, three minutes into the second period, Laken Muller (Inver Grove Heights, Minn. / Simley) evened the score with her team-leading tenth goal of the season to make it 1-1.

After Muller scored the opening goal, the flood gates seemed to open for St. Kate's, as the team capitalized on two power play opportunities to take a 3-1 lead over Saint Mary's in the second period. First, sophomore defender Tori Thompson (Rochester, Minn. / John Marshall) gave the Wildcats their first lead of the game as her slap shot whizzed past Cardinal goalie Marah Shields to put St. Kate's up 2-1. Few minutes later, Muller scored her second goal of the game, extending the Wildcats lead to 3-1 with a little under half the period remaining.

St. Kate's did run into penalty trouble shortly after Muller's goal. First Rebecca Prigge (Stillwater, Minn. / Stillwater) took a penalty for hooking at 12:46 before Muller was called for checking at 13:18. That left the Wildcats two skaters down for over a minute, giving the Cardinals their best scoring chance of the period. However, Pechacek and St. Kate's penalty kill was on fire and managed to successfully kill of both penalties without surrendering a single goal.

With a 3-1 lead after two periods, the Wildcats did everything they could to hold their lead in the third. Although St. Kate's skaters were unable to add to the lead, Pechacek was stellar between the pipes in the final period, making 13 saves on 13 shots to preserve the two goal lead. Even when Saint Mary's pulled Shields in favor of an extra skater, the Wildcats were able to hold off the Cardinals for nearly three minutes to earn the 3-1 victory.

Pechacek faced 35 shots in 60 minutes of work and made 34 saves, while Muller and Thompson provided the offensive power. Muller recorded her first multi-goal game of the season and Thompson scored her fifth overall goal and fourth power play goal of the season in the win.

With the win, St. Kate's closes the season with an over record of 10-13-2 and went 6-10-2 in MIAC play. Jordan Solheim (Thief River Falls, Minn. / Thief River Falls) ends the season with a team and MIAC-leading 18 assists, while both Pechacek and fellow goalie Abbi White (Wyoming, Minn. / Forest Lake) ranked in the top-5 in multiple statistical categories for goalies.