Game Summary

WINONA, Minn. — Al Schumacher (Oakdale, Minn.) has been doing his part in helping the Saint Mary's University men's hockey team to an impressive 8-2-0 start.

After all, the junior captain has scored 13 goals in the Cardinals' first 10 games.

Yet, just even with the nation's top Division III scorer, SMU's quick start hasn't been a one-man show. Sure, Schumacher is getting his points — but so are a lot of other players.

Case in point, Tuesday's nonconference game against Northland.

Schumacher netted his team- and nation-leading 13th goal four minutes into the second period, but four other Cardinals also tallied goals as SMU pushed its winning streak to four straight with a 5-1 victory.

"We're getting some very balanced scoring, and that's nice to see," said SMU coach Don Olson, whose team's winning streak is its longest since the Cardinals opened the season with five straight wins a year ago. "Everybody's contributing, and everybody's doing their part to help us succeed. We haven't had to rely on one or two people to carry the load, and that's been a real positive for us."

Despite outshooting the Lumberjacks 16-4 in the first period, the Cardinals found themselves in a 0-0 deadlock after the game's opening 20 minutes.

So Schumacher took matters into his own hands, scoring lucky No. 13 off a feed from Justin Brigl (Apple Valley, Minn.) less than five minutes into the second period.

And once Schumacher got the ball rolling, Eric Thom (Portland, Ore.) and Jason Fillipp (Fox River Grove, Ill.) kept it rolling as the two scored less than three minutes apart midway through the period to give SMU a 3-0 advantage heading into the final period.

"We had a lot of very good scoring opportunities — a lot of good 2-on-1s, good passing combinations — but we also got stymied a bit by a very hot goalie," said Olson, whose team finished with 50 shots on goal — including third-period tallies from Lenny Hofmann (Sartell, Minn.) and Chris Wickersham (St. Louis Park, Minn.). "It's kind of a good news, bad news situation — the good news is, we're getting a lot of offensive chances, the bad news is, we're not finishing as well as we should be.

"All-in-all, it was a good win for us," continued Olson. "Hopefully this will be a positive stepping stone as we get ready for (Saturday's night's game vs.) UW-River Falls."