Game Summary

ARDEN HILLS, Minn. — For the past three weeks, the Saint Mary's University men's hockey team has been walking a playoff tightrope — one wrong move, and the Cardinals would be done.

And for three straight weeks, SMU's high-wire act was superb, as the Cardinals rattled off Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference sweeps over Concordia, Hamline and St. Olaf to get them within striking distance of the fifth and final conference playoff spot.

Friday evening, however, the Cardinals lost their balance — and their shot at that playoff berth — as Bethel handed SMU a 5-3 setback at the Columbia Ice Arena.

"It's disappointing, because the guys worked so hard over the last month to get themselves into this position," said Olson, whose team was officially eliminated from playoff contention with the loss — their first since a 5-3 loss to Gustavus on Jan. 21. "They competed hard for 60 minutes tonight, we just ran out of time."

After falling behind 2-0 in the first period — a period in which Bethel pelted SMU goalie Curtis Nosal (Omaha, Neb.) with 21 shots — the Cardinals got to within 2-1 on a goal by Andy Roberts (Rochester, Minn.) five minutes minutes into the second period.

Bethel would regain its two-goal advantage with just 1:56 remaining in the period, but again SMU would cut the gap to one on Jesse Polk's (Hastings, Minn.) fifth goal of the season at the 13:22 mark of the third period.

Less than two minutes later, Bethel's Jeff Belvin beat Nosal to give the Royals a 4-2 lead. The Cardinals pulled Nosal for the extra attacker with just under two minutes remaining in regulation, and Adam Gill (Rochester, Minn.) made it pay off, scoring his team-leading 14th goal of the season with 30 seconds remaining.

SMU could not get the equalizer, however, as Jon Kramer iced the win with an empty-net goal with six seconds on the clock to seal the Cardinals' fate.

"Bethel is a very good team, and they played extremely well," said Olson, whose team will now close out its season at home against the Royals on Saturday. "We had our share of good opportunities, we just couldn't cash in on enough of them.

"I certainly can't fault the effort — these guys gave it everything they had, we just came up a bit short."