SUPERIOR, Wis. — For the Saint Mary's University of Minnesota men's hockey team, it wasn't the quantity of its shots against UW-Superior, but rather the quality.
 
After giving up the game's first 15 shots on goal, the Cardinals scored on their first shot on Yellowjacket goalie Zach Thompson—and their second—as Saint Mary's grabbed a two-goal first-period lead and never relinquished it in handing UW-Superior a 5-2 nonconference setback at Wessman Arena.
 
"We played well in third period, but the first two weren't too good," said Saint Mary's coach Bill Moore, whose team was outshot 35-13 through the game's first 40 minutes. "Phil (Heinle) kept us in there until we got things going offensively in the third period.
 
"What I'm most proud of tonight is, we found a way to win when we weren't at our best," Moore added. "It was nice to get some goal-scoring from different people—but the bottom line is, Phil was the difference."
 
Kelvin Walz (Woodbury, Minn.) and Chad Cesarz (Jackson, Mich.) gave the Cardinals a 2-0 advantage after the game's opening period, scoring goals 18 seconds apart late in the period.
 
UW-Superior would cut the gap to 2-1—and 3-2—sandwiching a pair of second-period goals around one by the Cardinals' Jude Warner (Pickerington, Ohio) to leave Saint Mary's clinging to a one-goal cushion heading into the third period.
 
And what a period it was, as Taylor Portner (Andover, Minn.) and Bob Marx (Sioux City, Iowa) wold score their first goals of the season to seal the victory for the Cardinals.
 
Heinle finished with 39 saves in goal for the Cardinals, while Thompson stopped 15 of the 20 Saint Mary's shots he faced.
 
The Cardinals (2-2-1 overall) are back in action on Saturday, traveling to Stevens Point, Wis., for a 7 p.m. nonconference game against sixth-ranked UW-Stevens Point at K.B. Willett Arena.