Box Score
NORTHFIELD, Minn. – If Saint Mary's University men's hockey coach
Bill Moore had his way, Saturday's nonconference game against St. Olaf would have been a 59-minute game, rather than a 60 minute contest.
After all, for 59 minutes, the Cardinals gave the host Oles all they could handle.
Unfortunately for Moore and the Cardinals, it's a pretty safe bet that the Oles aren't going to grant them a one-minute do-over.
The Oles scored two goals in the game's opening minute – and three in the opening 10 minutes – and then held off a furious SMU rally to beat the Cardinals 5-2 Saturday evening at the Northfield Ice Arena.
“We've got to find a way to come out and do a better job in the game's opening minutes,” said Moore, whose team gave up a goal 38 seconds into Friday's 6-0 loss to UW-Stout – and has trailed by three goals or more in each of their first four games. “We seem to settle down after the first couple of minutes, but by the time we start playing the way we are capable, we're digging ourselves out of a hole.”
Jeff Warren and Bryan Giordano got the quick-striking Oles out in front early, as the duo each beat SMU goalie
Greg Moore (Woodbury, Minn.) in the first minute, with Warren's tally coming 17 seconds in, while Giordano scored 36 seconds later.
Birtton Smith pushed the Oles' lead to 3-0 at 10:13 as St. Olaf, despite being outshot 12-10, took a 3-0 lead into the locker room after the first period.
SMU stole a page out of the Oles' playbooks in the second period, as
Anthony Bohn (Spring Hill, Fla.) and
Mike Glaesmer (Traverse City, Mich.) scored 27 seconds apart six minutes into the second period to cut St. Olaf's lead to 3-2.
Isak Tranvik gave the Oles a little breathing room with his third goal of the season eight minutes later, while Ben Umhoefer closed out the scoring with his first of the season with less than two minutes remaining in regulation.
“It's tough to battle back like we did and still come up short,” admitted Moore, whose Cardinals kicked off Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference play next weekend at Concordia. “But I'm proud of the way the guys battled all the way to the end.”
The Cardinals are beginning to look more like a M*A*S*H unit than a hockey team , as Zach Sisk (Pekin, Ill.) broke his collarbone blocking a first-period shot, while
Bryce Stevens (Rochester, Minn.) dislocated his elbow in the second period. The two join
Jeff Miller (Portage, Mich.),
Vincent Unklesbay (Maplewood, Minn. / separated shoulder) and Tommy Healy (Rolling Meadows, Ill. / high-ankle sprain) as members of the Cardinals' walking wounded.
“We're going to have more guys in the training room than we are on the ice at practice,” joked Moore. “It's tough to have so many guys go down with injuries, but I was happy to see the rest of the team step up.
“Overall, I was very pleased with the effort – we've just got to find a way to play the first few minutes the way we play the last.”
