Game Summary

MENOMONIE, Wis. — All season long, Lenny Hofmann (Sartell, Minn.) has done his best work in the shadows of the Saint Mary's University men's hockey teammates.

Heading into Friday's nonconference game at UW-Stout, the Cardinals had scored 42 goals, of which Hofmann had a hand in 14 of them. In fact, take away his two goals, and Hofmann helped set up 12 of the team's other 40 goals.

Can you say, "sharing?"

Hofmann was back working his magic early in Friday's game against the Blue Devils, as he helped set up Jason Fillipp's (Fox River Grove, Ill.) first-period goal to give SMU a 2-0 advantage. But after UW-Stout scored single goals in the second and third periods to send the game into overtime, it was time for Hofmann to step out of the shadows and onto center stage.

Hofmann proved to be just as skilled as a leading man as a supporting cast member as he scored an unassisted goal one minute into overtime to lift the Cardinals to a 3-2 nonconference victory.

After jumping out to their 2-0 first-period advantage on goals by Nick Meeker (Rochester, Minn.) and Fillipp, the Cardinals relied on the goaltending of senior Eric Richardson (Skokie, Ill.), who finished with 30 saves — including 11 in the third period.

UW-Stout cut the Cardinals' lead to 2-1 with just over a minute remaining in the second period on a goal by Drew Nichols, then knotted the game at two with a short-handed tally early in the third period.

SMU had both shots in the overtime period, with Hofmann's game-winner coming just 1:02 into the five-minute extra session.