By DONNY NADEAU
Saint Mary's Sports Information Director
 
BLAINE, Minn. — Kelvin Walz (Woodbury, Minn.), Kyle Meeh (Fenton, Mo.), and Andrew Cummings (Anchorage, Alaska) all entered the Saint Mary's University of Minnesota men's hockey team's Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference showdown against Bethel Friday riding five-game point streaks.
 
Before the game was even 14 minutes old, all three streaks had climbed to six straight—with Walz scoring the Cardinals' first goal, off assists from Cummings and Meeh.
 
And that was just the tip of the iceberg for the threesome, as Cummings and Meeh would also add second-period goals, and Walz would finish with four shots on goal.
 
The trio's efforts—along with Kellen Wasell's (Edmonds, Wash.) game-tying goal with less than five minutes remaining in regulation—carried the Cardinals to a 4-4 tie against the Royals in the team's conference matchup at the Schwan's Super Rink.
 
The Cardinals missed on all three of their shootout attempts, while Bethel's Dallas Marvin beat Cardinal goalie Aaron Davis (Mound, Minn.) on BU's second shootout attempt to give the Royals the extra conference point with the 1-0 shootout win.
 
"I did not think we played one of our better games," said Saint Mary's coach Bill Moore. "We just weren't as consistent as we need to be. We can't afford to be on a rollercoaster in games like this—we need to play at a high level from start to finish, and we didn't do that tonight."
 
Walz got the Cardinals on the board first at 13:40, as the senior rifled a shot past BU goalie Joe Sheppard for his fourth goal of the season.
 
It appeared like the Cardinals would escape the game's opening 20 minutes with that one-goal lead, but BU's Tyler Mros had other ideas, beating Davis with just one second remaining to knot the game at 1-1 after one.
 
The Royals opened the second period the same way they ended the first—with a goal—as BU's Kurtis Redding gave Bethel its first lead of the game, 2-1, just 13 seconds into the middle frame.
 
Cummings pulled the Cardinals even at 14:09 of the second period, scoring his fourth goal in six games—off assists from Meeh and Jude Warner (Pickerington, Ohio)—only to have Bethel answer 31 seconds later to retake the lead, 3-2.
 
And the second-period scoring fest wasn't done yet.
 
The Royals held the lead for a grand total of 4:06, before Meeh once again got the Cardinals even, scoring his seventh of the season with 1:14 remaining. Kellen Wasell (Edmonds, Wash.) and Jared Johnson (Hartland, Wis.) were credited with the assists.
 
After nearly nine minutes of scoreless activity to open the third period, the Royals snatched the lead again, as Jackson Purvis beat Davis from in front to give BU the 4-3 advantage.
 
Enter Wasell, who scored off assists from Wasell and Jack Stang (Mendota Heights, Minn.) with 4:53 remaining in regulation to pull the Cardinals even, 4-4—and earn Saint Mary's one conference point.
 
Davis finished with 29 saves for the Cardinals—including 10 in the first period and 12 more in the third—while Sheppard made 26 saves in goal for the Royals.
 
The Cardinals (4-5-2 MIAC, 7-10-3 overall) and Royals head to the Saint Mary's Ice Arena on Saturday for the second game of their two-game conference series. Game time is slated for 7 p.m.