By DONNY NADEAU
Saint Mary's Sports Information Director
 
WINONA, Minn. — For the second time in as many days, the Saint Mary's University of Minnesota men's hockey team scored the game's first goal in its conference showdown against Augsburg.
 
Unfortunately for coach Bill Moore, for the second straight game, Saint Mary's could not maintain a stranglehold on that one goal lead, as Augsburg — coming off a 2-1 overtime win over Saint Mary's the night before — rattled off four unanswered goals, including three in the third period, to deal SMU a 4-1 Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference setback Saturday at the Saint Mary's Ice Arena.
 
"I've been saying it since the start of the season, the key to our success this year is developing leadership on such a young team," Moore said. "We just are not getting any leadership from anyone other than our captains — we need other guys to step up and take charge a bit.
 
"It's not that we are playing poorly — we are doing a lot of good things — we just need guys to step up."
 
The Cardinals did not waste any time getting on the scoreboard Saturday night, as Austin Arnold (Anchorage, Alaska) netted his first of the season — off assists from Owen Sikich (Wolfeboro, N.H.) and Jack Hatton (Naperville, Ill.) — just 28 seconds into the opening period.
 
That, however, would be the last time the Cardinals would find the back of the net — and the Augsburg offense was just getting warmed up.
 
The Auggies — who managed just two shots in the first period — pulled even at 15:01 of the second period on a goal by John O'Connor as the two teams headed into the locker room after 40 minutes deadlocked at 1-1.
 
The Auggies grabbed the lead for good early in the third period, as Matt Hine beat Saint Mary's goalie Nick Nast (Oxnard, Calif.) for his first goal of the season at 2:18.
 
Ten minutes later, Austin Dollmer made it 3-1 with his fourth of the season, and Alex Rodriguez closed out the scoring, netting his team-leading ninth goal with 1:40 remaining.
 
Nast finished with 21 saves in goal for the Cardinals, while Augsburg goalie Nick Schmit kicked out 28 of the Cardinals' 29 shots — including 12 in the first period.
 
The Cardinals (0-3-1 MIAC, 0-7-1 overall) step out of conference play next weekend, heading to Lake Forest, Ill., for a pair of nonconference games against Lake Forest. The Cardinals and Foresters will play at 7 p.m. on Friday at Alumni Memorial Arena, before squaring off again at 4 p.m. the following afternoon.