WINONA, Minn. — It's been a nailbiting month for the Saint Mary's University of Minnesota men's hockey team.
 
The Cardinals collected four one-goal wins, including three in overtime—the last a double-overtime thriller against Concordia—en route to earning a spot in Saturday's Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Playoff Championship game.
 
Unfortunately for the Cardiac Cardinals, there would be no-late game heroics this time around, as Hamline scored a pair of third-period goals—including an empty netter with 31 seconds remaining—in handing Saint Mary's a heartbreaking 4-2 setback at the Saint Mary's Ice Arena.
 
"That was a good hockey game—unbelievable atmosphere and great performances by both teams," said Saint Mary's coach Bill Moore. "It's always tough to lose, especially a hard-fought game like this, but the guys have nothing to hang their heads about—they gave it everything they had from the drop of the puck until the final horn sounded."
 
The Cardinals got on the board first—thanks in large part to goalie Phil Heinle (York, Pa.). Less than a minute after Heinle stymied Hamline's Tony Mason on a shorthanded breakaway, Nick Albergo (Elmhurst, Ill.) rifled a shot that blew past Piper goalie John Sellie-Hanson 12:49 into the opening period.
 
Hamline got the equalizer before the period ended, as HU's Brandon Zurn made the most of a turnover in the Saint Mary's zone to zip a shot past Heinle and send the teams into the locker room after one period tied 1-1.
 
After coming up empty on a pair of golden opportunities midway through the second period—Bob Kinne (St. Paul, Minn.) robbed from point-blank range by Sellie-Hanson and Kelvin Walz (Woodbury, Minn.) clanking one off the post—the Cardinals finally regained the lead, as Kinne took a feed from Jared Johnson (Hartland, Wis.) and found the back of the net for his ninth of the season on the power play at 12:56.
 
Unfortunately, the period could not end quite fast enough for the Cardinals, as the Pipers pulled even on Charlie Adams' 19th of the season—with 1.5 seconds left in the middle stanza—to knot the game at 2-2 heading into the game's final 20 minutes.
 
And the Pipers' momentum carried into the early part of the third period, as Zurn scored his second of the game three minutes into the final frame off an assist by Adams to give Hamline its first lead of the game, 3-2.
 
Chad Hennum would add an empty net goal with 31 seconds remaining to seal the victory for the Pipers, who not only won the conference playoff title, but also earned the league's automatic berth into the NCAA Division III national tournament.
 
"I'm very proud of our guys and what they accomplished this year—it was a great season," said Moore, whose team finished with a 15-10-2 overall record—marking the most wins since Saint Mary's went 15-11-1 during the 1996-97 season. "It's been a 28-man effort all season to get us to this point—and I could not be more proud of each and every one of them.
 
"There's a lot of tears in the locker room right now, but we played as hard as could—the luck that had been going our way the last couple of weeks just didn't go our way tonight."