Game Summary

WINONA, Minn. — They played to a pair of 3-2 decisions a year ago — with the Saint Mary's University men's hockey team coming away the victor both times.

Friday night, they were at it again, posting their third straight 3-2 decision — only this time, the Oles came out on top.

The loss was just the third one-goal game of the season for the Cardinals, who had posted a 2-1 win over Saint John's and were 2-1 overtime victims to Gustavus.

One-goal games were nothing new for St. Olaf, on the other hand, as the Oles entered Saturday's rematch at the SMU Ice Arena veterans of 15 one-goal games.

Make that 16.

The Oles scored three unanswered goals — including two in the third period — then off a furious SMU comeback attempt in the game's final five minutes to post a 4-3 win over the Cardinals.

"It's hard to hang your head in a game like that. I thought we played well — much better than we did Friday night," said Olson, whose team has now dropped three straight after having put together a season-high three-game winning streak. "The problem is, moral victories aren't worth much — especially at this time of the year.

"St. Olaf is a good team, they are among the top three in the conference and they should be — they are a very talented team," Olson added. "To lose two, one-goal games like that is pretty tough to swallow."

St. Olaf got on the board first, scoring the only goal of the first period as Jeff Budish beat SMU goalie Dan Smith (Rochester, Minn.) with less than five minutes remaining to give the Oles a 1-0 advantage.

Deven VanHouse (Silver Bay, Minn.) pulled SMU even, netting his first collegiate goal off a St. Olaf turnover five minutes into the second period, and Mike Christensen (Detroit Lakes, Minn.) gave the Cardinals their only lead of the game with his sixth of the season five minutes later.

Nick Stalock would get the Oles even before the end of the second period, and Andy Ockuly and Stalock would add third-period goals to stake St. Olaf to a 4-2 advantage. Andy Roberts (Rochester, Minn.) cut the gap to 4-3 with his fourth of the year, and SMU threatened four minutes later, but Jeff Miller's (Portage, Mich.) shot clanked off the crossbar.

"We had our chances, we just can't seem to buy a break right now," Olson said. "I can't fault the guys' effort — that was probably the hardest we've worked all year. Unfortunately, sometimes that hard work gets rewarded, and sometimes it doesn't.

"We certainly played well enough to win both games, we just weren't able to catch a break."