Box Score  | GameDay Preview

MENDOTA HEIGHTS, Minn. — It took until the third period for 13th-ranked St. Thomas to break through against the Saint Mary's University men's hockey team Friday evening, as the Tommies scored three third-period goals in handing the Cardinals a 3-1 setback in the teams' Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference opener at the SMU Ice Arena.

Unfortunately for the Cardinals, the Tommies didn't wait nearly that long in the teams' rematch on Saturday.

St. Thomas scored a pair of first-period goals and never looked back, as the Tommies completed the two-game conference sweep of SMU with a 3-0 victory at the St. Thomas Ice Arena.

The Tommies opened the scoring at 10:34 of the opening period, as Connor McBride took a feed from Jordan Lovick and beat SMU goalie Christian Gaffy (Scandia, Minn.) to put UST up 1-0.

Six minutes later, Lovick was back at it, setting up Tyler Richter with the Tommies second goal of the game, as UST took a 1-0 advantage into the locker room after the game's opening 2-0 minutes.

UST pushed its lead to 3-0 six minutes into the second period, as Alex Niestrom netted his first of the season to round out the scoring.

SMU finished 0-for-2 on the power-play, failing to convert on a pair of five-minute power-play opportunities, while St. Thomas converted on one of its four power-plays — marking just the third goal SMU has surrendered in 24 man-advantage situations this season

The Cardinals (0-2-0 MIAC, 1-3-0 overall) step out of conference play next weekend, hosting UW-Superior (Friday) and UW-Stevens Point (Saturday) in a pair of 7 p.m. nonconference games at the SMU Ice Arena.