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WINONA, Minn. — It took a little longer than Saint Mary's University men's hockey coach Bill Moore would have liked, but you aren't going to get a more dramatic first win of the season than the Cardinals' 2-1 overtime victory over No. 8 Milwaukee School of Engineering Tuesday at the SMU Ice Arena.

“We'll take that,” understated Moore, after Bob Marx (Sioux City, Iowa) drilled a slap shot past MSOE goalie Connor Toomey three minutes into overtime to give SMU its first win of the season. “What pleases me more than anything is that the guys gave it everything they had — they blocked shots, they won battles in the corner and they backchecked really hard.

“It was a great effort — and they finally got their just reward.”

The two teams battled to a scoreless draw through the first two period, as Toomey and SMU goalie Andy Scheib (Sun Prairie, Wis.) did their best brick wall impersonations, with Scheib stopping 15 shots through two periods, while Toomey boasted 16 saves.

The Cardinals finally broke the ice at 8:27 of the third period, as Austin Balko (Midland, Mich.) netted his third goal of the season off assists from Nick Gorup (Omaha, Neb.) and Nick Nagel (Andover, Minn.).

The Raiders got the equalizers — foiling Scheib's shutout bid — on the powerplay with 3:31 remaining in regulation to force the overtime.

In the extra period, it was Marx who was the hero as he took a feed from Andrew Ketterer (Peoria, Ill.) and blasted a slap shot from the blueline past a screened Toomey for the game-winner.

“It's really nice to get that first win — it was long overdue,” said Moore, whose team hosts the Raiders again Wednesday afternoon (2:30 p.m.) at the SMU Ice Arena. “Now we have to put it behind us and be ready to repeat that effort (Wednesday).”