By
DONNY NADEAU
Saint Mary's Sports Information Director
NORTHFIELD, Minn. — It took
Carter Dahl (Fresno, Calif.) 24 games to record his first goal for the Saint Mary's University of Minnesota men's hockey team.
It took the Cardinal freshman 24 hours to net his second.
Dahl scored for the second straight night
And it was that second goal in as many nights — midway through the third period — that carried the Cardinals to their second straight win over the Oles, this time a 2-1 decision at the St. Olaf Ice Arena Saturday evening.
With the win, the Cardinals head into MIAC post-season play having won two straight and three of their last four. Saint Mary's will open MIAC Playoff action on Thursday, traveling to the Moorhead Sports Center in Moorhead, Minn., for a 7 p.m. opening-round showdown against Concordia
After a scoreless first period,
Tommy Stang (Mendota Heights, Minn.) got the Cardinals off and running, scoring his team-leading 12
th goal of the season — off assists from
Brennan McGuire (Bloomington, Minn.) and
Jack Stang (Mendota Heights, Minn.) — with less than four minutes remaining in the second period to give Saint Mary's a 1-0 lead heading into the game's final 20 minutes.
Dahl then gave the Cardinals a bit of breathing room with his second goal in as many nights — this one assisted by
Alex DiBacco (Darien, Ill.) — early in the third period to push the Saint Mary's lead to 2-0.
Caleb Callaway foiled the Cardinals' shutout bid, beating Saint Mary's goalie
Blair Sanders (Kansas City, Mo.) on a breakaway eight minutes into the third period to pull the Oles within one, 2-1.
Gallery: (5/12/2019) Cardinal Track & Field at MIAC Outdoor
That, however, would be as close as the Oles would get, as Saint Mary's — thanks in large part to Sanders' 10 third-period saves — held on for the one-goal victory.
Al Rogers (North Haven, Conn.) started in goal for the Cardinals, stopping all 11 Ole shots through the first two periods, before giving way to Sanders in the third. Eric Hancock made 21 saves in goal for St. Olaf.
Saint Mary's closes out conference play with a 7-7-2, and heads Thursday's matchup against Concordia with an 8-14-3 overall record.
