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WINONA, Minn. — A year ago, Concordia needed to come away with three of a possible four conference points in its regular season-ending Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference series against the Saint Mary's University men's hockey team to earn a spot in the five-team post-season conference tournament.

The Cardinals promptly rained on the Cobbers' post-season parade, routing CC 5-1 in the first game of their two-game series — officially eliminating Concordia from playoff consideration.

Unfortunately for SMU, the Cobbers returned the favor Friday evening at the SMU Ice Arena.

Needing a sweep to claim their first MIAC Tournament invitation since the 2003-04 season, the Cardinals surrendered the game's first four goals and their late rally fell one goal short, as Concordia eliminated SMU from post-season contention with a 4-3 victory.

“Obviously we are very disappointed — we knew what was at stake, and just came out flat in the first period,” said SMU coach Bill Moore. “I thought we played very well over the final two periods, but that first period, we just didn't have any get-up and go.”

The Cobbers came out flying, scoring three times in the game's first 16 minutes — the first off the stick of Joe Becker before the game was five minutes old. Less than two minutes after Becker's power play goal, Andrew Deters made it 2-0 and Caleb Suderman pushed the advantage to 3-0 with less than four minutes left in the game's opening period.

After spotting the Cobbers their second goal at 2:11 of the second period, the Cardinals' offense came to life. Bob Marx (Sioux City, Iowa) rifled a slap shot that beat CC goalie Chris Neamonitis on the power play at 3:38.

SMU continued to buzz the Cobber net the remainder of the second period, getting its second tally of the period with 39 seconds left, as Mike Hill (Fort Wayne, Texas) netted his team-leading 12th of the season to make it a two-goal game with 20 minutes to play.

Kevin Wentland (Columbia Heights, Minn.) — one of five graduating seniors honored before the game — made the most of his Senior Day, banging home his own rebound for his seventh goal of the season, pulling the Cardinals to within one just 1:31 into the third period.

That, however, would be as close as SMU would get, as the Cardinals — despite outshooting CC 7-0 over the first 13 minutes and 10-5 over the entire third period — could not get the equalizer.

“I'm proud of the way the guys battled tonight,” Moore said. “Once they fell behind 3-0 in the first period, they could easily have thrown in the towel — but they didn't. They battled to the very end, and for that I'm proud of them.”

The Cardinals (6-8-1 MIAC, 8-15-1 overall) close out their 2012-13 season on Saturday, hosting the Cobbers in the second game of the two-game MIAC series. Puck drops at 2 p.m. at the SMU Ice Arena.