Game Summary

WINONA, Minn. — After giving up four third-period goals in falling to Gustavus 4-0 Friday evening, the Saint Mary's University men's hockey team knew they were going to have their hands full in Saturday's rematch.

What they did not know, however, was that they were going to have to try and beat the Gusties with special teams, because the majority of the game would be played with one team, or the other — or both — with a player in the penalty box.

And the special teams weren't all that special for the Cardinals, as Gustavus scored four powerplay goals — including two during a five-minute major penalty in the second period — in handing SMU a 5-3 Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference defeat at the SMU Ice Arena.

"It's tough to get into any kind of rhythm when you are killing so many penalties," said SMU coach Don Olson, whose team was whistled for 17 penalties for 53 minutes. "I thought we played hard for 60 minutes tonight, but I wouldn't say we played smart. We took some careless penalties, and you can't do that against a team like Gustavus, which is a very good powerplay team — they move the puck very well."

Jon Keseley netted GAC's only even-strength goal at 11:28 of the opening period, rifling a shot over the glove of SMU goalie Curtis Nosal (Omaha, Neb.) for the period's only tally.

SMU evened things up seven minutes into the second period as David Gross (Grasston, Minn.) netted his fifth goal of the season on the powerplay.

That, however, would be as close as SMU would get as GAC rattled off three straight powerplay tallies — including two less than two minutes apart when GAC took advantage of a five-minute major penalty for checking from behind called on the Cardinals' Deven VanHouse (Silver Bay, Minn.) — to push the Gusties' lead to 4-1.

Still killing the VanHouse penalty, SMU's Adam Gill (Rochester, Minn.) got the Cardinals within two, 4-2, taking a feed from Tim McNamara (Hastings, Minn.) and netting the shorthanded goal with less than four minutes remaining in the second period.

The Gusties regained their three-goal cushion with their fourth powerplay goal of the game six minutes into the third, while SMU's Andy Roberts (Rochester, Minn.) rounded out the scoring with his fourth of the season at the 19:32 mark.

"We had more than our share of chances, we just can't seem to put the puck in the net," said Olson, whose team dropped its seventh straight in falling to 1-7-0 in the MIAC and 2-13-1 overall). "(On Friday), I thought we played 40 minutes of good hockey — we didn't play all that well in the third period and that cost us.

"Tonight, I thought we played hard for 60 minutes, and that's really all I can ask of them."