Game Summary

WINONA, Minn. — Don Olson has seen it before – and he didn't like what he saw Friday night any better than any of the previous times.

After scoring the game's first goal Friday evening against nationally ranked St. John's, the Cardinals gave up seven unanswered goals as the Johnnies extended their MIAC unbeaten streak to five straight this season with a 7-2 win over SMU at the SMU Ice Arena.

"(St. John's) is a very good team and you have to give them a lot of credit — they are very skilled, they worked hard and they got very good goaltending," said Olson, whose team has now lost its last seven meetings vs. the Johnnies, dating back to a 4-3 overtime win on Feb. 2, ,2002. "But still, we put ourselves in good position early (in the game) and when the momentum shifted, we didn't respond until (St. John's) had scored two or three or four goals.

"It's happened to us three or four times before and it was the same thing tonight," Olson added. "Once St. John's got a little momentum built up, we just couldn't slow them down, We don't score a lot of goals the way it is, and against a team like that, you can't afford to be trying to dig out of a three- or four-goal hole."

Which is exactly where the Cardinals found themselves Friday night — in a deep, deep hole.

David Gross (Grasston, Minn.) got the Cardinals on the board eight minutes into the first period, netting a power play goal off a pass from Marcus Reszka (Winona, Minn.). The Johnnies, however, responded with two goals in the final 12 minutes of the period — the second coming with just 49 seconds remaining — to take a 2-1 advantage into the locker room after 20 minutes.

"Their second goal really took a lot of wind out of our sails," said Olson, whose team managed just seven shots in the second period, as SJU padded its lead to 5-1 with three goals in the period's first 11 minutes. "I thought we played very well in the first period, but we came out flat in the second and (SJU) really took advantage."

The Johnnies' offense continued to pour it on in the third, getting back-to-back goals midway through the period to push the advantage to 7-1, before Gross and Adam Fleishman (Vernon Hills, Ill.) scored in the game's final two minutes to make it a 7-3 final.

"We knew coming in that we were going to need to be at our best for 60 minutes if we were going to compete with (SJU)," said Olson, whose team fell to 1-4-0 in the MIAC and 2-7-1 overall. "For about 30 minutes, we battled right with them. Now we've got to find a way to put it all together for the other 30."