Game Summary

WINONA, Minn. — There's a reason they are called "special teams."

And when the Saint Mary's University men's hockey team was on the powerplay Friday evening against UW-Stout, it really was special.

SMU, which scored just 23 powerplay goals in 25 games a year ago, converted on four of six powerplay opportunities against the Blue Devils — and the Cardinals needed every one of them as they held off UW-Stout 6-5 at the SMU Ice Arena for their first win of the season.

"It's nice to get that first one," said SMU coach Don Olson, whose team lost to St. Norbert 5-1 and tied Lake Forest 5-5 in its first two games. "Everyone was pretty pumped up to be playing at home, and I think that showed in how well we played that first period."

SMU erupted for four goals in the game's first 20 minutes, getting powerplay goals from Mike Bry (Manvel, N.D.) and Chad Damerow (Albert Lea, Minn.) and even-strength tallies from Jason Fillipp (Fox River Grove, Ill.) and Ryan Holland (Winona, Minn.), as the Cardinals held a commanding 4-1 advantage after one period.

"Sometimes when you jump out to a big lead like that, you tend to get a little too overconfident, and I think that happened to us a bit," said Olson, whose team outshot UW-Stout 20-5 in the first period, "We took some careless penalties in the second period, and that not only allowed (UW-Stout) to gain some momentum, but also to get back in the game."

Lenny Hofmann (Sartell, Minn.) gave SMU a 5-1 edge with his second goal of the season three minutes into the second period, but the Blue Devils responded with back-to-back powerplay goals from Bryan Cummings and Joe Schneider to cut the lead to 5-3 head into the final period.

In the third, Holland netted his second of the game to give SMU a three-goal cushion, but UW-Stout wouldn't give in, scoring twice in an eight-minute span – including Adam Boche's goal with 44 seconds remaining in regulation — to make things interesting.

"It's nice to get the win, but it got a little too close for comfort," admitted Olson, whose team returns to action Saturday, when they travel to UW-River Falls for a nonconference game. "We played at a very high level tonight, hopefully we can continue that trend (vs. the Falcons)."