RIVER FALLS, Wis., — If Tuesday's nonconference game against UW-River Falls was supposed to be an early Christmas present for Saint Mary's University men's hockey coach Don Olson, the Cardinal head coach is probably hoping his team saved the receipt — he wants to return it.
UW-River Falls, ranked No. 5 in the latest USCHO.com poll, scored six unanswered goals —all in the second period — as the Falcons won for the 10th time in their last 11 games, cruising to a 10-2 nonconference win at W.H. Hunt Arena.
"This is one of those games you just want to forget as soon as you can — it's kind of like the St. Norbert game (an 11-3 loss) a year ago," said Olson, whose team has now lost four in a row for the first time this season. "(River Falls) is a very good team, and they certainly proved that tonight. We just couldn't seem to do anything to slow them down.
"Once they got rolling, they were unstoppable."
Anthony Bohn (Spring Hill, Fla.), who had his three-game goal-scoring and seven-game point streaks snapped in last Friday's 2-1 overtime loss to Gustavus, netted the Cardinals' first goal Tuesday, as SMU headed into the locker room after the first period trailing 3-1.
Then the roof caved in on the Cardinals.
The Falcons' Derek Hansberry made it 4-1 less than two minutes into the second period, and by the time Dustin Norman beat SMU goalie
Dan Smith (Rochester, Minn.) — who came on in place of starter
Nick Berra (St. Louis, Mo.) midway through the period — UW-River Falls had pushed their advantage to a comfortable 9-1 cushion.
Jesse Polk (Hastings, Minn.) netted a power-play goal six minutes into the third period to account for SMU's second goal, while T.J. Dahl netted his third of the game two minutes later to close out the scoring.
"We're struggling right now — I don't know what it is, but we just don't seem to have a lot of confidence right now," said Olson, whose team is now off until an. 6, when the Cardinals travel to St. Scholastica for a nonconference game. "It's a good time for a break. Hopefully, everyone can step a way for a couple of weeks, rest up, get healthy, and come back ready to get things turned back around."
