Game Summary

WINONA, Minn. — It was a game the Saint Mary's University men's hockey team played too well to lose.

Yet, after two periods Saturday evening against St. Olaf, that's exactly what the Cardinals were doing — losing.

Despite holding a 30-16 advantage in shots on goal, the Cardinals were staring at a 1-0 deficit — against a goaltender who had stopped 69 of the 73 shots SMU had peppered on him over the last five periods — heading into the game's final 20 minutes.

The Cardinals' answer to such a dilemma? Just keep shooting.

And that's what they did, peppering St. Olaf goalie Garret Hasti with 10 more third-period shots – only this time, four of those shots found the back of the net as SMU rallied for a 4-1 victory.

"That was a great win for us — mainly because it was a game that we deserved to win," said SMU coach Don Olson, whose team had dropped a 5-4 decision to the Oles in their first meeting Friday evening. "I thought we put together three very good periods. We worked hard, we battled, and I think in the end we wore them down."

The Oles got on the board first, as Joel Ihrie tallied St. Olaf's fourth powerplay goal against the Cardinals, beating SMU freshman goalie Curtis Nosal (Omaha, Neb.).

That, however, would be the one and only goal the Oles would get past Nosal, who was making his collegiate debut. Nosal made several huge saves — including stopping a breakaway early in the second period, and robbing St. Olaf's Keith Townsend on a pair of shots from point-blank range early in the third period.

With Nosal doing his part, the Cardinals' offense finally got on track when Eric Thom (Portland, Ore.) took a feed from Chad Damerow (Albert Lea, Minn.) and beat Hasti.

Thom's goal — SMU's first since midway through the third period of Friday's game — opened the floodgates for the Cardinals, who added three more goals, two from Lenny Hofmann (Sartell, Minn.) and one from Al Schumacher (Oakdale, Minn.), over the next seven minutes to put the game away.

"Eric's goal seemed to break the ice for us," said Olson. "I thought we played an excellent first and second period, but we were still facing a one-goal deficit. These guys didn't let that affect the way they played in the third period — they just went out there and kept plugging away.

"And it paid off."