Game Summary
WINONA, Minn. — Saint Mary's University men's hockey coach Don Olson will be the first one to admit that he is thrilled that his squad has come out of the gates with a full head of steam.
After all, the Cardinals' 3-1 victory over St. Scholastica Friday evening extended their season-opening winning streak to five games.
During their current winning streak, SMU has outscored its opponents by a whopping 28-7 — just another reason Olson be sporting a grin so big he'd make the Cheshire cat jealous.
Yet, despite their red-hot start, the grin on Olson's face is visible, but it's far from ear-to-ear.
The Cardinals may be 5-0, but those first five games were just pop quizzes compared to what lies ahead — Saturday night's showdown with NCAA Division III power UW-Superior.
Now there's a test Olson would love his Cardinals to ace.
"I thought we did a lot of good things (against St. Scholastica)," Olson said. "And I think we've been steadily improving with each games we've played., which is exactly what you hope your team can do, especially early in the season.
"(But Saturday's game vs. UW-Superior) will no doubt be the toughest game we've had so far," continued Olson, noting that the Yellowjackets advanced to its third straight NCAA Division III Frozen Four a year ago, losing to Plattsburgh State 5-3 in the semifinals. "We know they are going to be a big, strong, mature team, and we're looking forward to the challenge."
Not that the Cardinals were looking past the Saints.
In fact, the Cardinals needed to turn in another blue-collar, workmanlike effort to get past the pesky Saints.
Jason Fillipp (Fox River Grove, Ill.) opened the scoring at the 11:51 mark, taking a feed from B.J. Gaustad (Portland, Ore.) and beating St. Scholastica goalie Greg Buell. The Saints tied the game three minutes into the second period, but SMU came back with the game-winner from Peter Benecke (St. Louis, Mo.) eight minutes later, and got a little breathing room when Ryan Stinson (Winona, Minn.) netted his fifth of the season on a picture-perfect passing play from Ryan Holland (Winona, Minn.) and Todd Hangge (Rochester, Minn.) early in the third period.
"It was one of those games where we just had to battle for everything we got," explained Olson of Friday's win. "Our forwards did a nice job of creating offense, and I thought our defensemen di d a real nice job."
Eric Richardson (Skokie, Ill.) pushed his record to 3-0-0 with a 13-save effort between the pipes for SMU, while the Cardinals peppered Buell with 27 shots — including 13 in the first period.
"This was a good win for us," admitted Olson, who hasn't had a team open the season 5-0-0 since the 1998-99 season. "But now we need to put this game behind us, because no matter how hard-fought a win it was, (Saturday's game) is going to be even tougher."
