WINONA, Minn. — The Saint Mary's University men's hockey team knew how important Friday's Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference game against Concordia would be — the Cobbers sat only a single point ahead of the Cardinals in MIAC standings as teams begin jockeying for position in the tight conference playoff chase.
The Cardinals also knew Friday's game would be a fight to the finish.
And it was the finish that carried SMU to the victory.
The Cardinals outshot the Cobbers 21-5 in the final 20 minutes — and scored four third-period goals — en route to a 6-3 victory at the SMU Ice Arena.
"This was a big win for us, especially because we did not play very well until the third period," said SMU coach Don Olson, whose team moved to 2-4-1 in the MIAC and 5-10-1 overall with the win. "We came out and played very tentative in the first period, and we weren't much better in the second. I don't know what it was, but we just didn't come out and play the way I had hoped."
Until the third period.
With the game tied at 2-2, SMU's
David Gross (Grasston, Minn.) and the Cobbers' Blaine Gamst traded goals in the first three minutes of the third period, before the Cardinals' offense went to work.
Matt Staehely (Shorewood, Ill.) gave the Cardinals the lead for good with his fourth goal of the season at 8:27, and SMU added two more tallies in the final minute — the first an empty net goal by
Mike Christensen (Detroit Lakes, Minn.) at 19:12 and the second a power-play goal by
Adam Gill (Rochester, Minn.) 30 seconds later.
"We knew coming in that this was going to be a battle — and I expect more of the same (Saturday)," said Olson, whose team hosts the Cobbers again Saturday afternoon in the second game of the two-game MIAC series. "Hopefully we can put together three periods like we did in the third period."
