Box Score Game Summary vs. SJU / GameDay Online

ST. CLOUD, Minn. — For the second day in a row, goals came in bunches when the Saint Mary's University and Saint John's men's hockey teams squared off.

Fortunately for SMU, this time around it was the Cardinals scoring by the bunches.

The Cardinals, who raced out to a 2-1 first-period lead — then surrendered seven unanswered goals in falling to the Johnnies 8-2 Saturday evening — got out of the gates quickly again Sunday, scoring three times in the first period and hanging on for a 5-4 Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference victory at the National Hockey Center.

“What a great way to close out the season,” said SMU coach Bill Moore, whose team closed out the season with a 3-12-1 record in the MIAC and a 4-20-1 mark overall. “All season long we've been waiting for us to put together a complete performance — and today, that's exactly what we got.

“We played very well in all aspects, which was great to see.”

Sean Geiger (Woodridge, Ill.) got the Cardinals off and running, scoring a pair of first-period goals, while Jeff Miller (Grand Rapids, Mich.) also scored in the game's opening 20 minutes to give SMU a 3-1 lead heading into the locker room at the intermission.

#A.J. Woodward# (Lenexa, Kan.) pushed SMU's lead to 4-1 with his fifth goal of the season two minutes into the second period, but SJU answered on a Jake Hipp tally at 11:19 to cut the gap to two, 4-2.

Tony Clafton (Grand Rapids, Minn.) helped SMU regain its three-goal cushion with his third goal of the season at 13:42 of the third period.

Then things go really interesting, as SJU answered with back-to-back goals one minute apart  — the latter off the stick of Brian Baker with 17:22 remaining to cut the gap to one, 5-4.

That, however, would be as close as the Johnnies would get, as SMU held on for the season-ending victory — snapping the Cardinals' six-game losing streak in the process.

“It's been an up-and-down season,” admitted Moore, whose team not only snapped its six-game losing streak, but also put an end to a season-long, 10-game road losing streak with their first win away from the SMU Ice Arena. “A game like this helps you forget a lot of the downs — it's the perfect way to go into the off-season.”