Game Summary

DULUTH, Minn. — The Saint Mary's University men's hockey team wasn't about ot leave any doubt about who the better teams was Friday night.

The Cardinals erupted for five first-period goals and cruised to a 7-3 nonconference victory over St. Scholastica.

"We played very, very well," said SMU coach Don Olson, whose team won its second straight and improved to 3-0-0 vs. nonconference opponents. "We came out right from the opening faceoff and just dominated play.

"It was one of those games where we started out strong and just never let up."

The Cardinals outshot the Saints 19-8 in the opening 20 minutes, getting four unanswered goals from Al Schumacher (Oakdale, Minn.), Ryan Holland (Winona, Minn.), B.J. Gaustad (Portland, Ore.) and Jason Fillipp (Fox River Grove, Ill.) before the game was 14 minutes old. Colin Emans (Hutchinson, Minn.) also scored in SMU's first-period onslaught as the Cardinals took a commanding 5-1 advantage into the locker room at the first intermission.

The Cardinals' Eric Thom (Portland, Ore.) netted the lone goal of the second period, while Sam Phillips' (Red Wing, Minn.) tally six minutes into the third period pushed SMU's advantage to 7-1.

"We were a much faster team than (St. Scholastica), and we definitely used that speed to our advantage," said Olson, whose team returns to action Saturday night, traveling to Superior, Wis., to take on defending NCAA Division III national champion UW-Superior. "We scored a number of great goals that were the culmination of some great passing.

"It was really nice to see everyone playing at such a high level."