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NORTHFIELD, Minn. — Scoring goals has not been a problem for the Saint Mary's University men's hockey team — the Cardinals entered Saturday's Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference game against St. Olaf having scored 39 goals in their first eight games.

Unfortunately for coach Bill Moore, the SMU offense went on an unscheduled hiatus against the Oles.

St. Olaf — which surrendered seven goals to the high-flying Cardinals in Friday's 7-5 Saint Mary's victory — grounded SMU in Saturday's rematch en route to a 5-1 Ole victory at the Northfield Ice Arena.

“We didn't played all that well tonight, but it's not like we played that poorly either,” Moore said. “Give St. Olaf credit, they are very good team and they played very well tonight.”

St. Olaf netted the only goal of the first period, before pushing its lead to 4-1 after the second, before netting the lone goal of the third period in handing SMU its first conference loss of the season.

Kevin Wentland (Columbia Heights, Minn.) scored his second goal in as many games to account for SMU's lone goal on assists from Austin Balko (Midland, Mich.) and Nick Nagel (Andover, Minn.).

“It never feels good to lose a game, but to go 1-1 against a very good St. Olaf team — and to be 3-1 (in conference play) heading into the Christmas break isn't too bad,” Moore said. “It would have been great to go 4-0, but to be 3-1 at this stage … we'll take it.”

SMU (3-1-0 MIAC, 5-4-0 overall) step out of conference play next weekend, traveling to Lake Forest, Ill., for a pair of nonconference games against Lake Forest. The two teams square off at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, before taking the ice against Saturday at 4:30 p.m.