Game Summary

WINONA, Minn. — It took the Saint Mary's University men's hockey team a little while to get warmed up, but once the Cardinals got going, they were virtually unstoppable Saturday evening against UW-River Falls.

Unstoppable to everyone by Falcons' goalie Dan Meneghin, that is.

Meneghin stopped 40 of the 41 shots the Cardinals put on goal – including 15 in the game's final period, as the Falcons pushed their season-opening unbeaten streak to six straight with a 2-1 win at the SMU Ice Arena.

"What can I say, their goalie stole that game from us," said SMU coach Don Olson, whose team had snapped a season-opening two-game losing streak with a 4-3 win vs. UW-Stout on Friday. "If you would have told me before the game that we would have 41 shots against River Falls, I would have told you you were crazy.

"For some reason or another, we came out a little slow in that first period, but after that, those last two periods, we dominated every facet of the game."

Unfortunately, that slow start proved costly for the Cardinals as UW-River Falls scored twice in the game's first 20 minutes — first on Garrett Larson's team-leading sixth goal of the season less than four minutes into the game and the second on Aaron Degerness' fourth of the season with less than three minutes remaining.

Down 2-0, the Cardinals turned up the heat, but the more SMU turned up the heat, the hotter Meneghin got, as the junior kicked out all 13 Cardinals shots in the second period and 15 of the 16 they put on goal in the third.

Chad Damerow (Albert Lea, Minn.) go the Cardinals within one with his second of the season early in the third period, but not matter how much they tried, SMU could not get the equalizer.

"That third period might have been the best we've played all year," said Olson, whose team finished with a 41-28 advantage in shots on goal. "For two periods, we outworked and outplayed (River Falls). Problem is, the game is three periods long — that flat first period really came back to haunt us."

Saturday's loss marked the third straight one-goal game for the Cardinals, who lost to St. Norbert by a goal last Saturday (5-4) and beat UW-Stout by a goal Friday (4-3). Yet, despite SMU's 1-3-0 start, Olson and the Cardinals aren't about to throw in the towel.

"We knew the start of the season was going to be tough," said Olson, whose team has now faced three nationally ranked teams in its first four games. "The guys know that they are playing well — that a break here or there and they could easily be 3-1 or even 4-0 right now. But they also aren't satisfied with the moral victory of coming close — they're mad, and that's a good thing."

Good for the Cardinals, but not for their opponents.