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WINONA, Minn. — Saint Mary's University men's hockey coach Bill Moore has seen this before.

For the third straight game — and the 13th time this season — the Cardinals were involved in a one-goal game.

Unfortunately for Moore and the Cardinals, for the third straight game — and 12th time this season — it was SMU that came out on the short end, as Saint John's scored the eventual game-winner four minutes into the third period in escaping the Saint Mary's Ice Arena with a 3-2 Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference victory Friday evening.

“Have we seen this before?” Moore asked afterwards. “They guys gave it everything they had — we just can't seem to get over the hump.

“To play that many close, one-goal games, you'd think we catch a break here or there.”

After a scoreless first period, it was the Johnnies who struck first, as Jascha Pettit beat SMU goalie Jason Horstman (Faribault, Minn.) two minutes into the second.

SMU struck back eight minutes later, as Ryan Griffiths (Arvada, Colo.) scored for the second straight game, taking a feed from Joey Nadeau (Winona, Minn.) and rifling it past SJU goalie J.D. Wellsw

The game didn't stay tied for long, however, as the Johnnies regained their one-goal lead on a goal by Josh Gross at 13:11.

Wally Cossette pushed Saint John's lead to 3-1 with his third goal of the season four minutes into the third period, but the Cardinals were not done, as Brad Fusaro snuck a shot between Wells' pads and into the net to make it 3-2 with just under 15 minutes remaining in regulation.

That, however, would be as close as the Cardinals would get, as SMU fell to 1-9-1 in conference play at 4-15-1 overall.

Horstman finished with 23 saves in goal for SMU, while Wells kicked out 25 of the Cardinals' 27 shots.

SMU will get another shot at the Johnnies on Saturday, as the same two teams square off again at the SMU Ice Arena at 4 p.m.