Box Score  | GameDay Preview

ST. PETER, Minn. — The Saint Mary's University men's hockey team certainly isn't making things easy on themselves.

The Cardinals headed into Saturday's Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference rematch with Gustavus battling with three other teams for the fifth and final conference playoff spot.

A win against the Gusties would propel SMU into that No. 5 slot, one point ahead of Gustavus with two games to play.

A loss against the Gusties, and the Cardinals would find their backs against the wall, needing a sweep against Concordia in the final weekend — and maybe a little help — to land that elusive playoff berth.

And, unfortunately, thanks to Saturday's 5-2 loss to the Gusties, coach Bill Moore and the Cardinals are left hoping help is on the way.

“We've put ourselves in a bit of a hole, no question about that,” said Moore, whose team fell to 6-6-1 in conference play and trails fourth and fifth-place Concordia (8-6-0) and Gustavus (6-5-2) by three points with two games remaining. “It's a pretty simple scenario now — we need to sweep Concordia next weekend. If we can do that, we're in.

“If we have to settle for a split, we're going to need some help.”

The Gusties waited until the last two minutes of the first period to get its offense out of neutral — but once they did, it was pedal-to-the-metal.

GAC broke a 0-0 tie on Jack Walsh's first of the season at with 1:43 remaining in the opening period, and Ryan Johnson made it 2-0 a minute later as the Gusties took a 2-0 lead into the locker room after the game's opening 20 minutes.

Nic Gualano (Prospect Heights, Ill.) got the Cardinals on the board — and cut the GAC lead to 2-1 — with his fourth goal of the season off assists from Austin Balko (Midland, Mich.) and Nick Gorup (Omaha, Neb.) at 11:06 of the second period.

Walsh pushed the Gusties' lead back to two, 3-1, with his second of the game at 8:08 of the third period, and just over two minutes later, Adam Smyth beat SMU goalie Andy Scheib (Sun Prairie, Wis.) to make it a three-goal deficit.

Kevin Wentland (Columbia Heights, Minn.) scored at 17:22, netting his sixth of the season, but it was too little, too late, as Wash completed his hat trick, scoring into an empty net with 12 seconds remaining to seal the GAC victory.

Scheib finished with 34 saves in goal for the Cardinals, while Tyler Venne recorded 25 saves in goal for the Gusties.

The Cardinals kick off their regular season-ending series against Concordia on Friday, when SMU hosts the Cobbers in a 7:30 p.m. game at the SMU Ice Arena. The two teams will square off again on Saturday at 2 p.m., also at the SMU Ice Arena.