Box Score Game Summary vs. Concordia / GameDay Online / Photo Gallery
WINONA, Minn. — The Saint Mary's University and Concordia men's hockey teams entered Friday's Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference game at the SMU Ice Arena as mirror images of each other.

Both came into the contest — under first-year head coaches — searching for their first win of the season.

Both dropped their first four nonconference games against NCHA opponents — including each losing to UW-Stevens Point and UW-Eau Claire.

Both followed up those nonconference setbacks with losses in their first two conference contests: Both lost by six goals in their MIAC opener — Concordia falling 9-3 to Hamline, while SMU was shut out by Gustavus 6-0; Both then lost their second-day conference rematches by 3-0 decisions.

Thanks to Andy Roberts (Rochester, Minn.) first goal of the season 1:45 into overtime, however, the similarities ended there.

The Cardinals — thanks to Roberts' overtime heroics — took a stick to the mirror and shattered it into a million pieces, snapping their six-game losing streak with a 6-5 OT victory over the Cobbers.

“Talk about a sense of relief,” said SMU coach Bill Moore, notching his first coaching win of the season. “These guys have been pressing so hard, they needed a bounce to go their way, and in overtime, it did.”

But the Cardinals certainly didn't make it easy on themselves.

The two teams matched goals through the first two periods, with CC's Ryan Clukey and SMU's Nick Carlson (Inver Grove Heights, Minn.) trading first-period goals, while Steve Murphy (Anchorage, Alaska), #A.J. Woodward# (Lenexa, Kan.) and Vincent Unklesbay (Maplewood, Minn.) tallied second-period goals to keep SMU even, 4-4, heading into the final 20 minutes.

Murphy netted his second of the game two minutes into the third period to give the Cardinals a 5-4 advantage, but Concordia got even, thanks to a pair of SMU penalties gave the Cobbers a 5-on-3 powerplay for two minutes — with Michael Weis banging home a rebound past SMU goalie Scott Pederson (Lake Villa, Ill.) to tie the game with eight minutes remaining in regulation.

“We proved to be pretty resilient today,” said Moore, whose team will be looking to complete the two-game conference sweep of the Cobbers when the same two teams square off Saturday at 2:05 p.m. at the SMU Ice Arena. “We almost shot ourselves in the foot with some undisciplined play in the third period, but, fortunately, we were able to weather the storm.

“This is a big win for us, but we need to be better,” Moore added, after watching the Cardinals get outshot 49-29. “Give Concordia a lot of credit, they worked very hard and played a very solid game. We got great goaltending from Scott and some timely goals — now we need to build off of this.”