Game Summary

WINONA, Minn. — Eight minutes into the first period of Saturday afternoon's Minneesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference rematch with St. John's, it appeared that the Saint Mary's University men's hockey team was well on its way to a victory — and a much-needed split in their conference series.

After all, the Cardinals got back-to-back goals from Al Schumacher (Oakdale, Minn.) and Chad Damerow (Albert Lea, Minn.) less than two minutes apart to give the Cardinals a 2-0 advantage.

Ten minutes into the second period, the Cardinals still maintained a two-goal cushion — albeit 3-1 — and those key two conference points were well within their grasp.

Then the roof caved in.

St. John's scored three unanswered goals, including Joel Starke's game-winner with less than five minutes remaining in regulation, as the Johnnies handed SMU a 4-3 setback at the SMU Ice Arena.

After Schumacher and Damerow got SMU off and running, SJU's Kevin Willey cut the lead to 2-1 with a powerplay goal — the first of three man-advantage goals for the Johnnies, who also scored a powerplay goal, and a shorthanded goal, in Friday's 4-1 SJU win.

SMU regained its two-goal edge when Marcus Reszka (Winona, Minn.) beat SJU goalie Adam Hanna from in close at 10:52 of the second period.

But that would be the extent of SMU's offensive output — and the start of the Johnnies'.

Darryl Smoleroff and Andy Johnson scored goals 59 seconds apart late in the second period to tie the game at 3-3 heading into the final 20 minutes. SJU pelted the Cardinal net with 14 third-period shots, finally breaking getting one past SMU goalie Curtis Nosal (Omaha, Neb.), when Starke banged home a rebound off a shot by Chad Schmidt at 15:29.