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WINONA, Minn. — Saint Mary's University men's hockey coach Bill Moore has preached all season, "give 100 percent effort — and the hard work will pay off."

Friday evening, the Cardinals certainly worked hard — and it most definitely paid off.

The Cardinals scored a pair of third-period goals less than two minutes apart to lift SMU to a 3-1 nonconference win over UW-Superior at the SMU Ice Arena.

"That's probably the most complete game we've played all season," said Moore. "We played well (in a 3-2 win) against St. Olaf (on Nov. 3) — but tonight we put together our most complete 60 minutes.

"I've told the guys over and over — the hard work will pay off, and tonight it did."

After nearly 22 minutes of scoreless hockey, the two teams needed just 10 seconds to score two goals in the second period.

Brad Fusaro (Kenai, Alaska) put the Cardinals on the board 1:45 into the second period — scoring his first goal of the season off assists from Austin Balko (Midland, Mich.) and Nick Nagel (Andover, Minn.) — only to have UW-Superior answer 10 seconds later on a goal by Cody Hotchkin to knot the game at 1-1.

The game would remain deadlocked until late in the third period, when SMU's Mike Wolter (Antigo, Wis.) and Mike Mezzano (Woodbury, Minn.) each found the back of the net. Wolter's goal, his team-leading second of the season, came off a feed from Jonathon Elliott (Bloomfield Hills, Ill.), while Mezzano recorded his first as a Cardinal less than two minutes later, rifling a wrist shot over the glove of UW-Superior goalie Drew Strandberg with 3:18 remaining in regulation to give the Cardinals some much-needed breathing room.

Christian Gaffy (Scandia, Minn.) finished with 20 saves in goal for the Cardinals, while SMU pelted Strandberg with a season-high 41 shots — including 15 in both the second and third periods.

The Cardinals (2-3-0 overall) are back in action on Saturday, as SMU hosts fourth-ranked UW-Stevens Point in a 7 p.m. nonconference game at the SMU Ice Arena.