Game Summary
WINONA, Minn. — The last time the Saint Mary's University men's hockey team played a game was Dec. 8, when the Cardinals dropped a 4-0 decision to UW-River Falls.
And it showed Friday night against UW-Stevens Point.
The Cardinals, unable to shake off the rust accumulated from a nearly three-week layoff, dropped their second straight game as the Pointers took advantage of a three-goal second period en route to a 5-2 nonconference victory at the SMU Ice Arena.
"I guess it's pretty safe to say we were a little rusty," admitted SMU coach Don Olson, whose team has now dropped back-to-back games for the first time this season. "But we really can't use that as an excuse, since (Stevens Point) has been off for the same amount of time.
"(Stevens Point) is a very good team, and they showed that tonight," continued Olson. "They are a big, physical team and they used that to their advantage."
The Pointers got on the board first with an unassisted goal by Zenon Kochan with less than five minutes remaining in the opening period. Kochan then jump-started Stevens Point's three-goal second-period outburst with his second goal of the game just 16 seconds into the period. Adam Kostichka made it 3-0 two minutes later, before Peter Benecke (St. Louis, Mo.) finally got the Cardinals on the board with a blast from the blue line that beat Pointer goalie Bob Gould.
Ryan Kirchhoff pushed the Pointers' lead back to three at the 13:45 mark of the second period and Nick Glander made it 5-1 nine minutes into the third. The Cardinals' Ryan Holland (Winona, Minn.) netted his third goal of the season with five minutes remaining in regulation to round out the scoring.
"We had plenty of chances, but their goalie played very well, and we passed up several good scoring opportunities," said Olson, noting that Stevens Point scored its five goals on 30 shots, while SMU managed just two goals on the same amount of shots. "We showed a lot of rust, but I also didn't feel like we competed as hard as we needed to.
"Hopefully the guys learned a little lesson from this game," continued Olson, whose team returns to action Saturday, playing host to UW-Eau Claire in SMU's final nonconference game of the season. "We can't afford to play with less than 100 percent effort — if we do, this is what happens."
