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WINONA, Minn. — There would be no need for any late-game heroics Friday evening — Mike Schaber (Blaine, Minn.) made sure of that.

The Saint Mary's University men's hockey team, coming off a 2-1 conference win over St. Olaf in which Andrew Ketterer (Peoria, Ill.) scored the game-winning goal with 0.4 seconds remaining in regulation, got a pair of goals from Schaber in beating Marian 4-2 in a nonconference game at the SMU Ice Arena.

“We seem to be hitting our stride,” said SMU coach Bill Moore, whose team has now won two straight and three of their last five. “I wouldn't say it was our best game of the year, but we got the job done — and at the end of the day, it still goes into the books as a win.”

The Cardinals got on the board first, as Brad Fusaro (Soldotna, Alaska) took a feed from Austin Balko (Midland, Mich.) and broke in alone on Marian goalie Randy Willis, beating the freshman to the stick side at 12:50.

The Sabres answered less than three minutes later, as Dakota Dubetz netted an unassisted goal, his seventh of the season, to tie the game at 1-1.

SMU regained the lead with the only goal of the second period, as Schaber banged in a Ketterer rebound at 4:46 for his first goal of the season — and first of his two goals against the Sabres.

Balko pushed the Cardinals' lead to 3-1 with his fourth of the season less than two minutes into the third period, and Schaber added his second of the night six minutes later — on SMU's second shot of the period — to put them up by three goals.

Marian cut the gap to two when Tom Glomski beat SMU goalie Jason Horstman (Faribault, Minn.) at 9:07 of the third. That was the last time the Sabres would solve Horstman, however, as the Cardinal junior stopped 17 of the 19 shots he faced in recording his first win of the season.

“It was good to see our forwards creating some good offensive opportunities — and then putting the puck in the net,” said Moore, whose team is now off until Jan. 6, when they host UW-Stevens Point in a 7:30 p.m. nonconference game at the SMU Ice Arena. “This was definitely a good way to head into the break.”