By DONNY NADEAU
Saint Mary's Sports Information Director
 
WINONA, Minn. — The Saint Mary's University women's hockey team seems to have adopted a simple — but effective — mantra of late: "Better late than never."
 
For the third straight game, the Cardinals found themselves playing catch-up Friday afternoon in their nonconference game against St. Norbert.
 
And catch-up they did, as the Cardinals scored four unanswered goals — including the first two collegiate tallies from Delaney Calabrese (West Dundee, Ill.) — erasing a 2-0 St. Norbert advantage and leading Saint Mary's to a 4-2 win Friday afternoon at the Saint Mary's Ice Arena.
 
With the win, the Cardinals improved to 2-0-1 in their last three contests — all come-from-behind wins.
 
Despite being outshot 12-7 in the opening 20 minutes, it was the Green Knights who owned the period's only goal, as Gaby Turer netted her third goal of the season — on the power play — to give St. Norbert the 1-0 lead.
 
St. Norbert padded that advantage to 2-0 9:12 into the second period when Libby Barbato's shot from the slot eluded a screened Ary Ziakas (Palatine, Ill.) and found the back of the net.
 
And then the Cardinals' offense showed finally showed some signs of life.
 
Courtney Moser (Blaine, Minn.) netted the Cardinals' first goal of the game at 17:35, and Delaney Calabrese (West Dundee, Ill.) added her first collegiate goal just two minutes later to pull the Cardinals even, 2-2, heading to the third period.
 
It was more of the same for the Cardinals in the third period, as Saint Mary's outshot the Green Knights 14-7 and got goals from Calabrese and Sophia Zebro (Oak Grove, Minn.) less than two minutes apart late in the frame to seal the win.
 
Calabrese had a chance at the hat trick, but her shot at the empty net in the waning seconds clanked off the goal post.
 
Ziakas picked up her first win of the season between the pipes for the Cardinals, stopping 20 of SNC's 22 shots on goal, while Anais Aurard recorded 32 saves in goal for the Green Knights.
 
The Cardinals (3-6-2 overall) and Green Knights (2-8-0 overall) return to the Saint Mary's Ice Arena Saturday afternoon, squaring off for the second game of their two-game nonconference series. Game time is slated for 12:30 p.m.