WINONA, Minn. — As a former high school teacher, Saint Mary’s University men’s hockey coach Bill Moore is used to giving out letter grades.
Friday evening at the SMU Ice Arena, he awarded the Cardinals an ‘A’ for effort.
He only wished he could do the same for execution.
The Cardinals put together one of their best overall performances of the season against the Auggies Friday — unfortunately, they weren’t rewarded for their efforts, as Augsburg scored two goals in the third period en route to a 5-4 Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference victory.
“It’s tough, because we certainly played well enough to win tonight,” said Moore. “Overall, I was very pleased with our performance — I certainly can’t fault the effort, and I can’t fault our play.
“We just need to catch a break pretty soon.”
The two teams traded first-period goals, with Augsburg’s Joel Sauer opening the scoring three minutes into the period, while SMU’s
Tommy Healy (Rolling Meadows, Ill.) pulled the Cardinals even at 14:51.
Vincent Unklesbay (Maplewood, Minn.) and
Ben Kitzmiller (Lambertville, Mich.) gave the Cardinals a short-lived 3-1 advantage with back-to-back goals seven minutes apart early in the second period, only to have the Auggies’ Mario Mjelli and Nick Guran answer with two straight goals to make it a 3-3 game heading into the final 20 minutes.
Blake Zemaitis (Mount Prospect, Ill.) put the Cardinals back in front with his third goal of the season, a power play tally at 1:33 of the third, but Augsburg again had an answer, tying the game on a J.P. Perpich tally at 7:34, then getting the game-winner off the stick of Tedd Falk three minutes later.
Jason Horstman (Faribault, Minn.) finished with 32 saves for the Cardinals, while Nate Pellegrino kicked out 36 SMU shots for the Auggies.
The Cardinals (1-10-0 MIAC, 1-18-1 overall) get another shot at the Auggies on Saturday, traveling to Minneapolis, Minn., for the second game of the teams’ two-game conference series. Game time is scheduled for 7:05 p.m.