Game Summary

WINONA, Minn. — It was a weekend that began with so much promise for the Saint Mary's University men's hockey team — and ended with so much heartache.

The Cardinals entered their Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference series against St. Olaf with one goal in mind — win two games and earn a second straight trip to the MIAC playoffs.

Even after dropping a 3-2 decision to the Oles in Northfield, Minn., on Friday night, the Cardinals' playoff hopes were still alive — they needed a win in Saturday's rematch, and an Augsburg win over Gustavus.

SMU tried desperately to do its part — scoring with less than eight minutes remaining in regulation on a goal by Chris Wickersham (St. Louis Park, Minn.) to tie the game and force an overtime period. Needing a win, however, the Cardinals were forced to pull goalie Ryne Ess (Eden Prairie, Minn.) for an extra attacker late in the OT, and St. Olaf's Jeff Budish picked up a loose puck and buried it into the open net with 13 seconds remaining to give the Oles a second straight 3-2 win.

And officially eliminate the Cardinals from the playoff picture.

"It's a tough, tough way to end the season," said SMU coach Don Olson, noting that not even an SMU win would have helped, since Gustavus dropped Augsburg 6-2 to earn the fifth and final playoff spot. "To me, this game tonight was a tie. We had to do whatever we could to win the game – a tie wasn't going to be good enough, so we had to take a chance and pull Ryne for the extra attacker.

"Despite the final outcome, this was a great college hockey game," continued Olson. "That's what the MIAC and Division III college hockey is all about — two teams battling and competing from start to finish. Would we have liked to have won, of course, but win or lose, it was a great game to be a part of."

Justin Green put the Oles on the board first, netting the only goal of the first period when he beat Ess with a shot at the 17:55 mark.

After a scoreless second period — thanks in large part to the play of Ess, who stopped all 15 Ole second-period shots — SMU's Mike Bry (Manvel, N.D.) pulled SMU even, netting his seventh of the season six minutes into the third period. The Oles regained the lead five minutes later, but the lead was short-lived as Wickersham — like Bry, one of seven seniors playing their final collegiate game — knotted the game once again less than two minutes later.

"This team never gave up — they never stopped working and they never stopped competing," said Olson, whose team closed out its season with a 6-9-1 mark in the MIAC and a 10-14-1 overall record. "When we started the season, we had 14 first-year players on the roster and I really didn't know what to expect from them.

"And every day, every game this team never ceased to amaze me. Out of the 25 games we played, I bet there weren't more than four periods in which I didn't think we played hard," continued Olson. "This is a tough way for the season to end, but this team also has a lot to be proud of. We put ourselves in position to make the players right to the very end, and that's all you can ask — we gave ourselves a chance, we just weren't able to get the breaks when we needed them most."