Game Summary

WINONA, Minn. — The Saint Mary's University men's hockey team has 12 seniors on its varsity roster.

And in their four years at SMU, they have helped the Cardinals beat every team in the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference — except one.

And that one isn't necessarily one you'd expect. It's not this year's league-leader St. Thomas. It's not last year's MIAC champion St. John's, and it's not Gustavus St. Olaf, Bethel, Concordia or Hamline.

For the Cardinal seniors first three seasons — and the four seasons prior to that — the Cardinals were winless against Augsburg. In the team's last 14 meetings, the Cardinals were 0-13-1, with their last win coming on Feb. 21, 1997.

Friday evening at the SMU Ice Arena, that all changed.

Jason FIllipp (Fox River Grove, Ill.) — one of those 12 seniors — scored the third of SMU's three second-period goals with six seconds remaining in the period and SMU held on over the game's final 20 minutes en route to a 3-2 victory.

The monkey was officially off the Cardinals' backs.

"It was a good college hockey game, and a good win for us," said SMU coach Don Olson, whose team snapped a two-game losing streak with the win. "I don't know how many of the guys really got too caught up (in the winless streak vs. the Auggies), but it's nice for them to finally get a win against them. We've had so many games in the past few years that we've dominated in shots on goal, but came out on the losing end on the scoreboard.

"Fortunately tonight, we were able to make enough of our shots count."

After a scoreless first period, Chad Damerow (Albert Lea, Minn.) got SMU on the board at the 8:47 mark of the second period. Less than a minute later, Nick Meeker (Rochester, Minn.) made it 2-0, rifling a shot from the high slot that eluded the glove of Augsburg goalie Erik Young. jake Wegscheider pulled the Auggies to within one, 2-1, at 13:53, banging a rebound past SMU goalie Ryne Ess (Eden Prairie, Minn.). 

Then came Fillipp's heroics, as he picked up a loose puck and beat Young — and the clock — to give SMU a 3-1 lead heading into the game's final period.

Collin Nash netted a powerplay goal eight minutes into the third period to once again pull Augsburg to within a goal, but that was as close as the Auggies would get as Ess and Co. shut them down the rest of the way to preserve the win.

"The game was a real battle, both teams played hard," said Olson, whose team moved to 4-3-0 in the MIAC and 9-6-1 overall with the win. "Their goalie played well — made some big saves for them — and I thought our goalie played well, too. It was one of those games that really could have gone either way."

Fortunately for the Cardinals — and those seniors — it went SMU's way.