ST. CLOUD, Minn. - It was a barn burner from start to finish between the College of Saint Benedict women's hockey team and Saint Mary's on Saturday at Dave Torrey Arena in St. Cloud, and it rightfully stayed so until the closing seconds when Saint Mary's capitalized on a breakaway to defeat CSB 2-1. 

The teams would both put nine shots on goal in the first period, but the opening frame was more about the tensions surrounding the game than goal scoring. Both teams would lose a player when Brigitte Miller and Saint Mary's Delaney Wolf would be dismissed from the game with game misconducts 16 minutes into the game following a skirmish in front of the SMU goal. 

The Cardinals (5-4, 3-3 MIAC) would be the first team to breakthrough on the score sheet for the second night in a row when Anya Hafiz cleaned up a rebound in front of first year goaltender Kailee Medved to put her team up 1-0 just 2:11 into the second period. 

CSB (0-7-1, 0-5-1 MIAC) would respond 7:49 later when Shelby Schneider completed a beautiful solo act, complete with winding through SMU defenders to get the rebound on her original shot. She tied the game at the exact halfway point to give both teams a goal on the board. 

That's all the scoring that would be done in regulation and Saint Benedict would enter its second straight Saturday overtime game. The teams would trade momentum in the extra period, as one flurry of shots would be met with the same intensity on the other end of the ice, but it was a pick up off an errand CSB zone clearing attempt that would seal the game as Hafiz would receive a pass at the blue line from Carolyn Chrastka and find herself one on one with Medved. She then slid the puck in perfectly between Medved's pads to seal the deal with just 12.5 seconds remaining in the game. 

Both teams enjoyed outstanding showings by their goaltenders as Medved and her Saint Mary's counterpart Ashley Corcoran would both save 30 shots. Both teams went 0-2 on the power play, but Saint Benedict excelled in the faceoff circle going 32-26 on the night. 

CSB returns to action next weekend, Dec. 8-9, when they travel to Ashland, Wis. for a pair of non-conference games against Northland College.