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WINONA, Minn. — The Saint Mary's University men's hockey team snapped a two-game streak in which the Cardinals surrendered three goals in the game's opening period Saturday evening against Gustavus.

Unfortunately for SMU coach Bill Moore, the Gusties may not have scored three first-period goals — but they did score two.

And the Cardinals could not recover, as Gustavus completed its two-game Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference sweep of the Cardinals with a 5-1 victory at the SMU Ice Arena.

"I don't think the final score really indicated how we played," said Moore. "I thought we played pretty well — much better than we did (Friday) night. The problem was, we put ourselves in a hole again tonight, and we had to take some chances in the third period, and Gustavus took advantage of that."

The Gusties took command early, getting back-to-back goal by Gustav Bengtson and Darren Lapic in the game's first 14 minutes, but Nick Nagel (Andover, Minn.) cut the gap before the period ended, scoring his third of the season off an assist from Mike Wolter (Antigo, Wis.).

The quick-striking Gusties were at it again in the second period, as Gavin Tufts netted the lone goal of the period, beating SMU goalie Mitch Fernsler (Ballwin, Mo.) at 3:46 of the middle frame.

Tufts and Bengtson would add their second goals of the game late in the third period to round out the scoring.

Fernsler, making his second start of the season, finished with 20 saves for the Cardinals, while John McLean stopped 25 of the Cardinals' 26 shots.

"I'm very happy with the effort," Moore said. "(Gustavus) is No. 1 in the conference for a reason, they are very good team and we battled them start-to-finish.

"Unfortunately, we just weren't able to generate enough offense."

SMU is back in action next weekend, as they square off against St. Olaf in a pair of conference games, with Friday's in Northfield, Minn., and Saturday's back at the SMU Ice Arena.