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Saint Mary's University of Minnesota Athletics

THE OFFICIAL SITE OF SAINT MARY'S UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA CARDINAL ATHLETICS

Men's Hockey

Cardinals come up empty in 2-0 loss

Donny Nadeau, SMU Sports Information Director | dnadeau@smumn.edu

SMU's Bob Marx rifles a shot during SMU's game against Augsburg at the SMU Ice Arena
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WINONA, Minn. — After what transpired on Friday, it seemed to be a safe assumption that Saturday's rematch between the Saint Mary's University and Augsburg men's hockey teams would be another scoring fest.

After all, the two teams combined for nine goals in the game's opening 20 minutes of the Auggies' 7-3 Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference victory Friday at Ed Saugestad Rink in Minneapolis, Minn.

SMU's Christan Gaffy (Scandia, Minn.) and Augsburg's John Bretzman, however, had other ideas.

Gaffy kicked out a career-high 33 shots in his fourth collegiate start, but Bretzman did the Cardinal sophomore one better, kicking out all 25 SMU shots, as the Auggies handed Saint Mary's a 2-0 conference setback at the SMU Ice Arena.

“That was a tough one,” said SMU coach Bill Moore. “We certainly had our share of (scoring) chances, we just couldn't put the puck in the net.

“Give (Bretzman) credit, he played a very solid game — we just weren't able to get the track in front of him that we needed to.”

The Auggies gave Bretzman all the offense he would need, as Thomas Paine netted his fourth goal of the season, beating Gaffy with eight minutes remaining in the opening period.

The two goalies would continue to take center stage, as Gaffy stopped 28 of 29 shots through the game's first two periods — including thwarting Paine and Derek Loisel on breakaways — while Bretzman was perfect on all 18 SMU attempts.

Augsburg pushed its lead to 2-0 at 14:35 of the third period, as Mack Ohnsted beat Gaffy to the short side. SMU had a chance late on the power play, but could not convert, as the Cardinals dropped their third straight to fall to 5-4-1 in the MIAC and 7-11-1 overall.

SMU returns to conference action next weekend, travel to the National Hockey Center in St. Cloud, Minn., for a pair of MIAC games against red-shot Saint John's. The Johnnies, 3-0-3 in their last six games, host the Cardinals in a 7 p.m. game on Friday, with the two teams squaring off at 2 p.m in the rematch on Saturday.
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