Game Summary

WINONA, Minn. — Maybe there's really something to this "scoring first" concept after all.

For the first time this season, the Saint Mary's University men's hockey team scored first Friday evening — and for the first time this season, the Cardinals picked up a victory.

Jesse Polk (Hastings, Minn. ) got the Cardinals on the board 10 minutes into the first period, and the Cardinals never trailed as SMU picked up win No. 1, beating Lake Forest 4-2 in a nonconference game at the SMU Ice Arena.

"It's always nice to get that first win, and for us to play as well as we did makes it that much sweeter," said SMU coach Don Olson, whose team moved to 1-2-0 overall with the win. "That's the first time all year we've had to play with the lead and I thought we did a nice job. We played with a lot of poise, made good decisions with the puck, and created a lot of good offensive opportunities."

A lot? That's an understatement.

The Cardinals pelted Lake Forest goalie Brandon Kohuch with 45 shots — including 20 in the third period, when SMU scored twice to turn a 2-1 nailbiter into the 4-2 victory.

"That third period was one of the best periods we've played in a long time," said Olson, whose team held the Foresters to just five third-period shots, but still led just 3-2 with less than two minutes remaining, before Adam Gill (Rochester, Minn.) gave SMU some breathing room with his second goal of the season. "I've been pleased with our offensive production in all three games … to put 45 shots on net (vs. Lake Forest) is outstanding.

"Now the next step in the progression is to score on a little higher percentage of those shots."

The Cardinals took a 1-0 lead into the locker room after the opening period and Lake Forest's Adam Tobias and SMU's David Gross (Grasston, Minn.) traded second-period goals to give SMU a 2-1 edge heading into the final period.

Andy Roberts (Rochester, Minn.) wasted little time netting his first of the season, scoring 22 seconds into the final period to push SMU's lead to 3-1. Matt Oke cut the gap back to one, 3-2, at 13:48, but Gill iced the win with his second of the season five minutes later.

"This is a good win for us," said Olson, whose team will face St. Norbert — last year's NCAA Division III runner up — Saturday night. "We've got our work cut out for us (vs. St. Norbert) and it will be nice to go into that game on a high note."