Box Score Game Summary
MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. — Talk about going to the extremes.
The Saint Mary's University men's hockey team turned in one of its worst performances of the season Friday evening, giving up seven goals — and putting together a lackluster effort — in falling to Augsburg 7-2.
Twenty-four hours later, SMU and Augsburg squared off again, and this time, the Cardinals put together one of their best showings of the season, scoring three times in the third period en route to a 6-3 victory.
"I don't know what happened in that 24-hour span, but we went from playing some of the worst hockey we've played, to some of the best," said SMU coach Don Olson. "We played so poorly (Friday) that I really didn't know what to expect from them tonight.
"It was like night and day," continued Olson, whose team was outshot 44-25 and outworked at both ends of the rink in Friday's setback — then held the Auggies to just five shots through the first 34 minutes of Saturday's game. "We played so much better tonight. We moved the puck around, we beat them to all the loose pucks.
"It was much more the way I expect this team to play."
Tim McNamara (Hastings, Minn.) got the Cardinals on the board seven minutes into the opening period and Travis VanDynHoven (River Falls, Wis.) followed that up with his first of the season at 12:20 to give SMU a 2-0 advantage after one period.
Graham Murphy (Webster Groves, Mo.) made it 3-0 SMU three minutes into the second period, but back-to-back Auggie goals in the final four minutes of the period made it a one-goal game heading into the final 20 minutes.
The two teams traded goals early in the third — SMU's coming off the stick of defenseman Tom Stewart (Eden Prairie, Minn.) — and the Cardinals iced it with a pair of empty netters, the first by Adam Gill (Rochester, Minn.) and the second by McNamara to post their first MIAC win of the season.
"It was great to see this team bounce back the way they did," said Olson. "Hopefully, they also learned how important it is to come to the rink and compete for a full 60 minutes."
