Game Summary

WINONA, Minn. — For the second straight night, the Saint Mary's University men's hockey team came within inches of knocking off a nationally ranked team.

Unfortunately for the Cardinals, for the second straight night, close didn't count, as St. Norbert scored its second powerplay goal of the night 56 seconds into the third period to lift the Green Knights to a 5-4 nonconference win over the Cardinals Saturday evening at the SMU Ice Arena.

Yet, despite back-to-back losses to open the season, there is no black cloud hanging over the Cardinals.

In fact, just the opposite.

"I'm very pleased with the way we played all weekend," said SMU coach Don Olson. "To open your season against Lake Forest and St. Norbert — two of the top teams in the NCHA — and to play them to the point that a break here or there and we are 2-0 instead of 0-2, that's very satisfying.

"Obviously we are disappointed with the two losses — especially because we were in position to win either, or both, games," Olson continued. "But everyone feels good about the effort that they put forth.

"I told them after the game that the only disappointment I had was that they deserved at least one win on the weekend and they didn't get it."

If the Cardinals were still feeling the effects of Friday's season-opening loss to Lake Forest — a game in which the Foresters scored three unanswered third-period goals to beat SMU 5-3 — they certainly didn't show it against St. Norbert.

Jesse Polk (Hastings, Minn.) got SMU on the board at 5:22 of the first period. Spencer Carbery knotted the game at 1-1 at 13:43, but Polk found the back of the net for a second time — and the third time this weekend — less than a minute later to give SMU back the lead, 2-1.

That, however, would be the last time the Cardinals would lead, as St. Norbert scored back-to-back goals 21 seconds apart late in period to take a 3-2 advantage, then pushed the lead to 4-2 four minutes into the second period on a goal by Jeremy Mitchell.

Graham Murphy (Webster Groves, Mo.) and Adam Fingerhut (Oak Brook, Ill.) pulled SMU even with their first goals of the year midway through the period, as the teams battled to a 4-4 stalemate heading into the third period, where Jon Schultz's powerplay goal less than a minute into the period proved to be the game-winner.

"Considering how young this team is (nine SMU players were competing in their first-ever varsity games over the weekend), I was very happy with what I saw," said Olson. "We've still got a lot of work ahead of us, but, despite the losses, I think this was a very successful weekend."