Game Summary

STEVENS POINT, Wis. — It was supposed to be a final tune-up for the Saint Mary's University men's hockey team.

A weekend for the Cardinals to make any last-minute adjustments before they dive into six straight weekends of conference play.

If their performance against UW-Eau Claire and UW-Stevens Point is any indication, the Cardinals don't need much fine-tuning.

A tweak here or there, but that's about it.

Al Schumacher (Oakdale, Minn.) scored twice — including his NCAA Division III-leading fifth shorthanded goal of the season — as the Cardinals completed a 1-0-1 weekend with a 2-2 tie against UW-Stevens Point Sunday afternoon.

"It was a good weekend for us," said SMU coach Don Olson, whose team erupted for four second-period goals en route to a 6-2 win over UW-Eau Claire on Saturday. "We had almost a month off (due to the Christmas holidays), so there was a little rust we needed to work off, but overall I thought we played pretty well."

The Pointers certainly didn't waste any time trying to put a monkey wrench in the Cardinals' well-oiled machine, as Andy Corran beat SMU goalie Ryne Ess (Eden Prairie, Minn.) with a shot from the point 38 seconds into the first period.

Schumacher rallied the Cardinals with the first of his two goals midway through the period as the two teams headed into the locker room tied 1-1 after the opening 20 minutes.

Neither team was able to generate any offense in the second period, while Schumacher gave the Cardinals a short-lived 2-1 lead at the 10:38 mark of the third period. Zenon Kochan answered less than four minutes later to tie the game for a final time.

"We did some good things out there, but I also thought there were times when we got a bit careless," said Olson, whose team moved to 9-3-1 with the tie. "We got away from our game a bit in the third period, took some undisciplined penalties — and those are the little things that we can't afford to do."