ST. PETER, Minn. — On Friday night, the Saint Mary's University men's hockey team's power play suffered a power outage, as the Cardinals went 0-for-7 with the man advantage in a 2-1 overtime loss to Gustavus at the SMU Ice Arena.

Saturday, in the teams' Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference rematch, it wasn't just the power play that came up empty for the Cardinals — it was their entire offense — as Gustavus completed the two-game sweep with a 2-0 victory.

"It's pretty tough to win many (conference series) scoring one goal in two games," said SMU coach Don Olson, whose team has now lost three straight for the first time this season. "We struggled on the power play on Friday night, and it was more of the same tonight — we just couldn't generate any good scoring chances."

For the second straight night, the Cardinals had the luxury of seven power-play opportunities — and for the second straight night, they came up empty, managing just four shots in the eight minutes with the man advantage.

"Our special teams had done such a nice job last weekend (against Saint John's), said Olson, whose team scored four of its seven goals on the power play in the MIAC split vs. the Johnnies. "And then (against Gustavus), our powerplay never got on track — we just struggled all weekend."

Tim Ornell gave GAC all the offense it would need, beating SMU goalie Dan Smith (Rochester, Minn.) with a shot late in the second period that broke a scoreless tie. Eric Bigham gave the Gusties some breathing room with his sixth of the season 29 seconds into the third period.

Gustavus goalie Kevin Johnson stopped all 15 SMU shots — including eight in the second period when SMU held an 8-3 advantage in shot son goal — as the Gusties handed the Cardinals their first shutout loss since a 4-0 loss to GAC in the first game of their MIAC series a year ago.

"The second period (Saturday) was our best period of the weekend. I thought we played with a lot of energy and really controlled the play," said Olson. "Unfortunately, (Gustavus) was the one to get a goal in the period, and that really took away any momentum we may have gained.

"We've got to find a way to get better offensively," Olson added. "To hold an opponent to two goals in back-to-back games — and lose both — that's a little frustrating."