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WINONA, Minn. — It was a day of firsts for the Saint Mary's University men's hockey team.

And for head coach Bill Moore, three firsts equaled one very big Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference win.

Nick Nagel (Andover, Minn.) and Andrew Ketterer (Peoria, Ill.) each scored their first collegiate goals and Jason Horstman (Faribault, Minn.) recorded his first collegiate shutout, as the Cardinals blanked St. Olaf 2-0 Friday evening at the SMU Ice Arena.

“It was a great team effort tonight,” said Moore, whose team snapped a seven-game losing streak, while — more importantly — improving to 3-2-0 in conference play. “The biggest difference tonight was our aggressive we were, and how many shots we blocked. (St. Olaf) may have attempted a lot of shots, but we didn't let many get through.”

Twenty-seven Ole shots did avoid Cardinal defenders, but none were able to get past Horstman, who was a brick wall in goal in blanking the Oles.

“Jason played very well, and we played very well in front of him,” Moore said. “Like I said, it was a total team effort.”

After a scoreless first period — and nearly a scoreless second — Nagel finally got the Cardinals on the board, tipping a Brad Denney (Fishers, Ind.) shot past St Olaf goalie Nick Krauss.

Ketterer then gave the Cardinals some breathing room, as his slap shot from the point eluded Krauss, giving SMU a 2-0 advantage with less than two minutes remaining in regulation.

“We needed to come out and play well tonight — no question it's a great jump-start to the rest of our conference schedule,” said Moore, whose team travels to Northfield, Minn., for the rematch against the Oles on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. “Hopefully we can just keep it going.”