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BLAINE, Minn. — A college hockey game consists of three, 20-minute periods — and the Saint Mary's University men's hockey team made the most of every last minute Friday evening.
The Cardinals scored three of their four goals in the last 1:30 of a period in handing Bethel a 4-1 Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference setback at the Schwan's Super Rink.
"That was a big win for us," said SMU coach
Bill Moore. "We played very well from start to finish, which was good to see.
"I've been saying all along, if we are going to make any type of serious run at the conference playoffs, it's important to find a way to win on the road — and tonight, we did just that."
The Royals would strike first, as Tyler Sorenson flipped in a puck from just inside the center-ice red line that took a funny bounce and slipped through the pads of SMU goalie
Phil Heinle (York, Pa.) just six minutes into the opening period.
From there, however, the opening stanza belonged to the Cardinals, as
Jonathon Elliott (Bloomfield Hills, Ill.) scored his third goal of the season at 10:48 to tie the game at 1-1, and
Austin Balko (Midland, Mich.) beat the first-period buzzer, scoring with just one second remaining on the clock to give the Cardinals a 2-1 advantage.
SMU would push that lead to 3-1 in the second — and again it was a late-period tally — as
Martin Gruse (Trenton, Mich.) beat Bethel goalie Steven Bolton with just 1:17 remaining.
The Royals threatened to cut the gap to one late in the third period, but Heinle came up with his biggest save of the evening, stopping Brock Raffaele's penalty shot to keep it a two-goal game.
Bob Marx (Sioux City, Iowa) would then ice the win for the Cardinals, netting his career-high sixth of the season with 38 seconds remaining.
Heinle finished with 28 saves in goal for the Cardinals, while Boston stopped 20 of SMU's 24 shots.
SMU (2-3-0 MIAC, 6-7-1 overall) goes for the conference sweep of Bethel on Saturday, as the Cardinals return to the SMU Ice Arena for a 7 p.m. rematch with the Royals.
