Game Summary

WINONA, Minn. — The Saint Mary's University men's hockey team headed into Friday's Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference game against St. Thomas in the midst of a five-game losing streak.

More importantly, the Cardinals' offense was suffering from a late-season meltdown, failing to score more than three goals in any of the five games.

SMU broke out of its offensive funk, scoring four goals against the Tommies — the most goals allowed by UST in its last six games.

Unfortunately for the Cardinals, as good as their offense was, the Tommies' was even better.

UST erupted for four first-period goals — including one 1:40 into the period and two in a two-minute span midway through — en route to a 6-4 MIAC victory at the SMU Ice Arena.

Nick Pernula opened the scoring for UST with his 21st of the season, taking a feed from Kevin Rollwagen and beating SMU goalie Andy Nadeau (Winona, Minn.). Jesse Polk (Hastings, Minn.) knotted the game at 1-1 with his 10th of the season, only to have Ryan Hoehn and Pernula answer for the Tommies to give UST a 3-1 advantage with nine minutes remaining in the first period.

And the fireworks were just beginning.

Matt Staehely (Shorewood, Ill.) pulled the Cardinals to within a goal, 3-2 at 16:52, but again the Tommies answered, scoring 28 seconds later to take a 4-2 advantage into the locker room after one period.

UST netted the lone goal of the second period on Harris' second of the game, while SMU sandwiched goals by Andy Roberts (Rochester, Minn.) and David Gross (Grasston, Minn.) around a tally by St. Thomas' Alex Arnason to close out the scoring.

The Cardinals, who saw their losing streak climb to a season-high sixth straight in falling to 4-10-1 in the MIAC and 7-16-1 overall, close out their season Saturday, traveling to St. Thomas for a 7 p.m. game.