Game Summary

ST. PETER, Minn. — Saint Mary's University men's hockey coach Don Olson has been waiting patiently for his Cardinals to put together a complete game.

When his offense is clicking — like in the second period of last Saturday's 5-3 loss to UW-Stout, in which SMU erupted for three second-period goals — the defense isn't quite in sync.

And when the defense is air-tight — like last Friday's 3-1 loss vs. seventh-ranked UW-River Falls, in which the second Falcon goal came on a penalty shot and the third was into an empty net — the offense goes into hibernation.

Unfortunately for Olson, it was the offense that took Friday night off, as Gustavus — which had its first 28 shots stopped by SMU goalie Curtis Nosal (Omaha, Neb.) — scored four times in the final 13 minutes of the third period, breaking a 0-0 stalemate and dropping the Cardinals 4-0.

"The first two periods were a real battle," said Olson, whose team was outshot 23-17 through the game's opening 40 minutes, but remained tied thanks in part to the play of Nosal. "Curtis played very well, especially in those first two periods. We just weren't able to give him any offensive support."

The Gusties finally got their offense shifted out of neutral seven minutes into the third period, as Mike Hosfield got GAC on the scoreboard. Over the next seven minutes, the Gusties would beat Nosal three more times — including a powerplay goal by Tim Ornell and a shorthanded tally by Steve Dusich — in handing SMU its sixth straight loss.

"I thought we played a bit nervous tonight — we weren't as crisp has we were last weekend," said Olson, whose team gets another shot at the Gusties Saturday night at the SMU Ice Arena. "We're creating good chances, we just aren't able to convert on them. It's almost like there's a shield covering our opponent's net — the puck just won't go in for us."