Game Summary

WINONA, Minn., — After taking 28 shots and managing just two goals in the first two periods of Friday's game vs. Concordia, the Saint Mary's University men's hockey team decided to take a little different approach when they took the ice for Saturday's rematch against the Cobbers.

Quality over quantity.

The Cardinals scored on two of their first three shots, and three of the first 10, and never let up, cruising to a 7-1 Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference win — and their first conference sweep of the season.

"This may have been one of the best all-around games we've played all year," said SMU coach Don Olson, whose team posted its first conference sweep since winning back-to-back 3-2 decisions against St. Olaf on Feb. 17-18, 2006. "We moved the puck better than we have all year and we were creating a number of good scoring opportunities."

The Cardinals, who needed four third-period goals — including two in the final minute — to pull away for a 6-3 win on Friday night, didn't waste any time putting Saturday's game out of reach. Kevin Eidsmo (Chanhassen, Minn.) and Adam Gill (Rochester, Minn.) gave SMU an early, 2-0, lead, scoring two minutes apart in the game's opening six minutes.

Andy Roberts (Rochester, Minn.) would also net a first-period goal, as the Cardinals took a 3-0 cushion into the locker room after the game's opening 20 minutes.

And SMU was just getting warmed up.

Jeff Miller (Portage, Mich.) and Mike Christensen (Detroit Lakes, Minn.,) — who posted his first collegiate two-goal game on Friday — found the back of the net in the second period, while Jesse Polk (Hastings, Minn.) and Matt Staehely (Shorewood, Ill.) had third period tallies for SMU.

"It was good to see our offense break out a bit this weekend," said Olson, who got scoring from five different players on Friday, and seven different players accounted for the seven goals on Saturday. "This team has the potential to do some very good things down the stretch, but it's going to take an effort like they showed (Saturday) in order to accomplish that."