By DONNY NADEAU
Saint Mary's Sports Information Director
 
WINONA, Minn. — The Saint Mary's University of Minnesota men's hockey team gave coach Bill Moore an early Christmas present Saturday afternoon — and it was Dylan Robertson (Alpharetta, Ga.) and Tyson Liverance (Burford, Ontario) who proved to be in the giving mood.
 
Robertson and Liverance each collected two assists in the Cardinals' three-goal first period, as Saint Mary's heads into the holiday break with a 4-2 nonconference win over UW-Superior at the Saint Mary's Ice Arena.
 
"I was very happy with the way we played today — it was a great bounce-back game for us," said Moore, whose team dropped a 5-2 decision to the Yellowjackets on Friday night. "We did not play very well on Friday, so to see us come out and score three goals in the first period — that was huge.
 
"Getting a win today is a nice way to head into the break."
 
Owen Sikich (Wolfeboro, N.H.) got the Cardinals are on the board early, scoring for the second straight game just 4:41 into the first period — with Robertson and Liverance getting the assists.
 
Liverance and Trevor Paradise set up Tucker Chapman (Rochester, Minn.) four minutes later, as the freshman redirected a Liverance shot past UW-Superior goalie Oscar Svensson for his first collegiate goal.
 
And the Cardinals weren't finished.
 
Robertson picked up his second assist of the period — and his fourth of the weekend, feeding Alex DiBacco (Darien, Ill.), who beat Svensson for his fifth of the season, and a 3-0 Saint Mary's lead after 20 minutes.
 
UW-Superior would score the lone goal of the second period, when Levi Cudmore foiled Saint Mary's goalie Al Rogers' shutout bid with his first of the year at 15:53.
 
Saint Mary's pushed its lead back to three, 4-1, on a power-play goal by Tommy Stang (Mendota Heights, Minn.) — off assists from Jack Stang (Mendota Heights, Minn.) and Ryan Stoynich (Calgary, Alberta).
 
UW-Superior beat Rogers for a second time on a goal by Troy York at 15:41, but that would be as close as the Yellowjackets would get.
 
Rogers finished with 38 saves in goal en route to his first win of the season — and second of his collegiate career. Svensson made six saves in the first period, before being pulled for A.J. Smith, who stopped 21 of the 22 shots he faced over the final two periods.
 
The Cardinals (1-9-3 overall) are now off until Jan. 11-12, when they play host to Concordia for a pair of Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference contests at the Saint Mary's Ice Arena. Saint Mary's and CC will square off at 7 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 11, before returning the following afternoon for a 2 p.m. rematch.