By DONNY NADEAU
Saint Mary's Sports Information Director
 
WINONA, Minn. — For the last three weeks, the Saint Mary's University of Minnesota men's hockey team has feasted on Friday night home cooking.
 
The Cardinals made it three straight wins in their last three Friday night contests, as Saint Mary's scored twice in the second period and once more in the third in dealing Hamline the same fate as Gustavus and Bethel the previous two weeks — an MIAC loss — this time a 3-1 decision at the Saint Mary's Ice Arena.
 
"That was a good win — now we have to go out and do it again tomorrow," said Saint Mary's coach Bill Moore. "The difference tonight was our penalty kill — they did an outstanding job all night."
 
Neither team would break through in the game's opening 20 minutes, thanks in large part to the play of Saint Mary's goalie Nick Nast (Oxnard, Calif.) — who stopped all 11 HU first-period shots — and the Cardinal penalty kill, which killed off a five-minute major that included two full minutes of 5-on-3.
 
Saint Mary's broke the scoreless deadlock just 1:49 into the second period when Alex DiBacco (Darien, Ill.) beat Hamline goalie Evan Robert for his sixth goal of the season. Owen Sikich (Wolfeboro, N.H.) and Dylan Robertson (Alpharetta, Ga.) picked up the assists.
 
It appeared as if the Cardinals would take that one-goal lead into the locker room at the second intermission, but Kyle Meeh (Fenton, Mo.) had other ideas, as the junior took a picture-perfect drop pass from Sikich and rifled a one-timer past Robert with 33 seconds remaining to push the Saint Mary's advantage to 2-0 after 40 minutes.
 
Ryan Charko (Warren, N.J.) made it 3-0 with his second goal of the season six minutes into the third period, but the Pipers would not goo down easily, cutting the deficit to two, 3-1, with a power-play goal by Brandon Zajicek at 14:00.
 
That, however, would be as close as the Pipers would get, as Saint Mary's maintained its stranglehold on the fifth and final MIAC Playoff spot with three conference games to play. With the win, the Cardinals moved to 5-6-2 in conference play for 18 points — three points in front of Bethel and five points in front of Gustavus in the chase for that fifth spot.
 
The Cardinals (6-13-3 overall) and Pipers are back on the ice on Saturday, as the two teams head to TRIA Rink in St. Paul, Minn., for the second game of their two-game conference series. Game time is slated for 7 p.m.