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NORTHFIELD, Minn. — If Saint Mary's University men's hockey coach Bill Moore had one wish Friday night, it would be for a first-period do-over.

The Cardinals gave up 24 shots — and three goals — in the game's opening 20 minutes and never recovered, as St. Olaf handed SMU a 5-2 Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference setback at the Northfield Ice Arena.

“Take away that first period and it's a completely different story,” said Moore. “We just not come out and play well in the first period, which was disappointing.

“I was happy with the way the guys battled over the final two periods, we just dug ourselves too deep a hole.”

St. Olaf scored two goals in the game's first four minutes — the first off the stick of Kevin Harris at 2:33 and the second less than a minute later by Britton Smith. Kevin Wentland (Columbia Heights, Minn.) got the Cardinals within one with his third goal of the season at 7:40, but St. Olaf regained its two-goal advantage on Austin Wetmore's first goal of the season with two minutes remaining in the period.

St. Olaf pushed its lead to 4-1 on Harris' second goal of the game midway through the second period, only to have SMU answer back nine minutes later on A.J. Mueller's (New Berlin, Wis.) second goal of the season.

That, however, would be as close as the Cardinals would get, and the Oles iced the win with an empty net goal late in the third period.

Jason Horstman (Faribault, Minn.) finished with 38 saves for the Cardinals — including 21 in the first period — while St. Olaf's Ben Leis stopped 19 of the 21 SMU shots he faced.

“We need to get out of the gates better (Saturday),” said Moore, whose team hosts the Oles in the second game of their two-game conference series at 7:30 p.m.,  Saturday at the SMU Ice Arena. “We did some good things tonight, but we definitely weren't as consistent as we need to be.”