Box Score Game Summary vs. Lake Forest / GameDay Online / Photo Gallery

WINONA, Minn. — Heading into Friday's nonconference game against Lake Forest, Saint Mary's University men's hockey coach Bill Moore was worried about his team showing signs of rust.

After all, the Cardinals hadn't played since dropping a 7-6 overtime decision to Hamline on Dec. 6.

Through the opening 20 minutes of Friday's game at the SMU Ice Arena, Moore's concerns were put to rest, as the Cardinals — fueled by a goal by Andy Roberts (Rochester, Minn.) — held a 1-0 lead.

During that first-period intermission, however, that rust made an appearance — on all the Cardinals' skates — as the Foresters erupted for five unanswered goals en route to a 5-2 victory.

“It's not the way we wanted to start the second half (of the season),” said Moore, whose team fell to 1-9-1 overall with its third straight loss. “We came out and played really well in the first period, but after that, we just stopped playing all together — those last two periods were not very good at all.”

The Foresters pulled even four minutes into the second period, and Zach Kozak gave Lake Forest the lead for good at 11:26 of the second. Mike Kneeland would add a pair of shorthanded goals to push the Foresters' lead to 4-1, before Alex North (Faribault, Minn.) netted his first collegiate goal to cut the gap to 4-2.

That, however, was as close as SMU would get, as Ethan Goldberg added an empty net goal to see the win.

The Cardinals had their share of scoring opportunities, peppering the Lake Forest goal with 39 shots, but Forester goalie Brandon Kohuch was up to the task, finishing with 37 saves. Scott Pederson (Lake Villa, Ill.) stopped 34 shots in the losing effort for SMU.

“The effort wasn't what I was hoping for, we just didn't seem to have that jump in our step that we should have hand,” said Moore, whose team is back in action Saturday, playing host to defending national champion St. Norbert in a 7:05 p.m. game at the SMU Ice Arena. “We've definitely got to play better (Saturday), or it could be a long, long night.”