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WINONA, Minn. — Friday evening, the Saint Mary's University men's hockey team spotted Bethel a 1-0 first-period lead, then rattled off four unanswered goals en route to a 4-1 Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference victory.

In Saturday's rematch, the Cardinals once again let Bethel get out of the starting gate quickly — only this time, SMU found themselves staring at a 3-0 deficit in the game's opening 11 minutes.

Down, but far from out, the Cardinals began digging — with Nick Albergo (Elhurst, Ill.) leading the way, as the freshman rattled off three straight goals for his first collegiate hat trick to pull SMU even, 3-3 five minutes into the third period.

Unfortunately, Bethel would have the last laugh, as the Royals got a goal from Jack McFarlane with eight minutes remaining in regulation to beat the Cardinals 4-3 at the SMU Ice Arena.

"That's a tough one," said SMU coach Bill Moore. "We played so well yesterday, and I really thought we stepped up our game even more tonight.

"The problem was, we created a ton of offensive chances, but didn't get enough of our shots on goal," added Moore, whose team attempted 84 shots, but only managed to put 38 on goal. "The guys worked hard, we just couldn't come up with that big fourth goal down the stretch."

The Royals scored three times — on goals by Tony Larson, Collin Mayer and Chris Williamson — before the game was 11 minutes old, but Albergo cut the deficit to 3-1 before the period ended.

Albert made it a one-goal game with his second of the night at 9:56 of the second period, then capped the hat trick — SMU's first since Mike Glaesmer scored four goals at Hamline on Dec 06, 2008 — with his fifth of the season six minutes into the third period.

The game would remain deadlocked until 11:55, when McFarlane's shot from the left side slipped past SMU goalie Christian Gaffey (Scandia, Minn.).

"I'm very happy with the effort," Moore said. "We just can't keep putting ourselves in early holes like that — it takes an awful lot of energy to dig out."

The Cardinals (2-4-0 MIAC, 6-8-1 overall) are back in action next Friday, traveling to St. Peter, Minn., for a 7:05 conference matchup with Gustavus at the Don Roberts Ice Arena. The two teams will then return to the SMU Ice Arena at 7 p.m. on Saturday for the second game of the two-game MIAC series.