Box Score
ST. PAUL, Minn. — For 20 minutes, the Saint Mary's University men's hockey team was finally clicking on all cylinders, as the Cardinals scored the only goal of the first period and appeared to be in complete control in its Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference game against Hamline.
Unfortunately for the Cardinals, the Pipers' decided to throw a monkey wrench into their well-oiled machine, as Hamline rattled off five unanswered goals — including two in a 24-second span early in the seond period — en route to a 5-1 conference win over SMU at the Drake Ice Arena.
“We played a great first period — one of the best periods we've played all season,” said SMU coach
Bill Moore. “But then we came out in the second period and just seemed to go through the motions — and Hamline isn't the type of team you can afford to do that against.”
Anthony Bohn (Spring Hill, Fla.) scored the only goals of the opening period, netting his second of the season off an assist from Blake Zematis (Mount Prospect, Ill.).
That, however, would be the extent of the Cardinals' offensive output, as Hamline goalie Beau Christian stopped the last 20 shots he faced — and finished with 23 saves.
While the Cardinals' offense seemed to bog down after the first-period intermission, the Pipers' was just heating up, as Jordan Van Gilder tied the game 1-1 just 31 seconds into the middle period, and Ryan Kupperman and Kelly Plude scored 24 seconds part six minutes later to give Hamline the lead for good.
The Pipers would add to more goals in the final period in handing SMU its second conference loss in three games.
“We've talked all season about playing well defensively,” said Moore. “We can't afford to be getting into shootouts — we need to win games 1-0, 2-1, 3-2 … We aren't going to win games 6-5.
“It's frustrating, because we played so well in the first period,” added Moore, whose Cardinals get another shot at the Pipers Saturday, when SMU finally — after seven straight road games — opens its home schedule with a 7 p.m. game at the SMU Ice Arena. “We've got to figure out a way to play with the intensity that we did in the first period for the whole game.”
