By DONNY NADEAU
Saint Mary's Sports Information Director
 
WINONA, Minn. — After playing a game of hot potato with the lead in Friday's opening game of their two-game Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference series, the Saint Mary's University and Bethel men's hockey teams were at it again Saturday.
 
Just 24 hours after Saint Mary's held leads of 1-0 and 3-2 — for a combined 2:31 — while the Royals owned a 21-second, 2-1 advantage in Bethel's 4-3 overtime win — it was more of the same at the Saint Mary's Ice Arena, as the Cardinals scored the game's first goal — and led for a grand total of 35 seconds.
 
Saint Mary's finally took a lead — and held on to it for more than 27 minutes — only to have Bethel rattle off four unanswered goals in the game's final 12:01 en route to a 5-3 victory over the Cardinals.
 
Kyle Meeh (Fenton, Mo.) gave the Cardinals the early lead, scoring his team-leading ninth goal of the season at 7:47 of the first period. As was the case Friday, Bethel had a quick answer, getting the game-tying goal off the stick of Brandon Baker just 35 seconds after Meeh's tally.
 
The game would remain deadlocked until the 5:30 mark of the second period, when Jack Hatton (Naperville, Ill.) beat Bethel goalie Joe Sheppard with his second of the season to give Saint Mary's a 2-1 lead.
 
Five minutes later, it was 3-1 Saint Mary's on a goal by Owen Sikich (Wolfeboro, N.H.) — his second in as many games and fourth of the year ­— and the Cardinals would maintain that two-goal advantage until midway through the third period.
 
And then the wheels on the Cardinal bus came off.
 
Luke Posner and Nick Ketola scored back-to-back power-play goals less than two minutes apart and Josiah Roen added a shorthanded tally three minutes later to give the Royals a 4-3 lead. Roen added his second of the game — and empty net tally with 53 seconds remaining in regulation, to ice the win.
 
Al Rogers (New Haven, Conn.) finished with 16 saves, while Sheppard stopped 26 of the Cardinals' 29 shots on goal.
 
The Cardinals (4-4-0 MIAC, 7-9-1 overall) are back in action next weekend, kicking off their two-game conference series against nationally ranked Augsburg on Friday at 7 p.m. at the Saint Mary's Ice Arena. The two teams will then head to the Auggies' Ed Saugestad Rink in Minneapolis, Minn., for the 7 p.m. rematch the following evening. The Royals (4-3-3 MIAC, 5-11-3 overall), meanwhile, hit the road next weekend, traveling to the Moorhead Sports Center in Moorhead, Minn., for a pair of MIAC games against Concordia. Friday's action will kick off at 7 p.m., with Saturday's second game of the two-game MIAC series set for 2 p.m. the following afternoon.