Box Score Game Summary | GameDay Preview

ST. PETER, Minn. — The Saint Mary's University men's hockey team was having so much fun in its season finale at Gustavus Saturday, that the Cardinals decided to play a little extra time.

In the overtime, however, it was the Gusties who had the last laugh, as Mitch Carlson scored with 2:18 remaining to lift Gustavus to a 5-4 Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference win over SMU at the Don Roberts Ice Arena.

“It's a tough way to lose — and a tougher way to have your season end,” said SMU coach Bill Moore, whose Cardinals closed out their season with a 6-17-2 overall record — including a 5-9-2 mark in conference play. “We came out and everything seemed to go just right (in the first period), and then in the second and third periods, we couldn't seem to catch a break.”

The Cardinals raced out to a 3-0 first-period lead, as Joey Nadeau (Winona, Minn.), Nate Peterson (Cadillac, Mich.) and Tom Healy (Rolling Meadow, Ill.) scored on three of SMU's first five shots to give Saint Mary's a 3-0 cushion after the opening 20 minutes.

Dane Erickson got the Gusties on the board three minutes into the second period, but Peterson netted his second of the game at 14:38 to push SMU's lead back to three, 4-1. GAC scored its second goal of the period with 33 seconds remaining to cut the gap to 4-2 heading into the final 20 minutes.

In that third period, it was Gustavus, as GAC got goals from Ryan Johnson, Gustav Bengston and Adam Smith to send the game into overtime.

Jason Horstman (Faribault, Minn.) finished with a career-high 52 saves, as Gustavus pelted the SMU netminder with 57 shots. Josh Swartout, meanwhile, stopped 11 of SMU's 15 shots to earn the win.

“I'm proud of our guys,” said Moore. “They gave everything they had day-in and day-out.”