• FOR THE RECORD: The Cardinals come into Saturday's conference showdown against Hamline on the heels of a 1-0, double-overtime conference loss to Hamline last Saturday. The loss dropped the Cardinals to 3-11-0 overall, and left SMU still searching for its first conference win.
• ONE-GOAL NAILBITERS: Nine of the Cardinals' last 11 games have been decided by one goal. SMU has beaten Simpson (1-0), while falling to Carleton (2-1), Saint John's (1-0), UW-Eau Claire (3-2), Gustavus (1-0), Ripon (3-2), Augsburg (2-1), St. Olaf (2-1), and Bethel (1-0).
• BACK HOME AGAIN: Saturday's game against Bethel was the second of back-to-back home games for the Cardinals, who have posted two of their three wins this season on their home turf. SMU — which plays its next two games on the road — is 2-4-0 at home, while going 1-6-0 away from Ochrymowycz Field.
• OT HEARTBREAK: The Cardinals' 1-0 loss to Bethel last Saturday marked its second overtime loss of the season. Along with the 2 OT loss to the Royals, Saint Mary's dropped a 1-0 OT decision to Saint John's on Sept. 18.
• OFFENSIVE LEADERS: Eli Szymanski (La Crosse, Wis.) scored his team-leading seventh goal of the season in the Cardinals' 2-1 loss to St. Olaf on Wednesday. Landon Pendleton (Mobile, Ala.) is second on the team in goals with four, while Diego Rivera (Chicago, Ill.) leads the team with two assists and Szymanski boasts a team-leading 15 points. … Syzmanski's seven goals this season give him 21 for his four-year collegiate career, ranking the senior tied for fourth all-time
• CAREER FIRSTS: Pendleton, Roberto Bontempi (Santos, Brazil), and Alex Keeler (Antioch, Ill.) all scored their first collegiate goals in the Cardinals' 5-0 win over Martin Luther on Sept. 6. … Pendleton netted a pair of goals vs. the Knights for his first career two-goal game. … Jack Hurley (Homewood, Ill.) scored his first collegiate goal in SMU's 3-1 win over Edgewood on Sept. 4.
• TAKING THE SHOT: Szymanski has attempted a team-high 33 shots and also leads the team with 16 SOG.
• KING OF THE PK: Szymanski scored his fourth penalty kick goal of the season against UW-Eau Claire on Sept. 26. Szymanski scored two of Saint Mary's three goals in its Sept. 4 win over Edgewood — both coming on penalty kicks — while also adding a PK goal against Carleton on Sept. 15. Szymanski has now scored Saint Mary's last eight PK goals.
• BETWEEN THE PIPES: Daniel Sessler (Brookfield, Ill.) enters Saturday's game at Hamline with a 1.80 goals-against-average and a .786 save percentage. … Sessler owns 81 saves in 12 starts — tops in the MIAC. … Sessler stopped all four shots he faced against Simpson on Sept. 11 en route to the first shutout of the season and second of his career
• CAREER-HIGH: Sessler posted a career-high 12 saves against UW-Eau Claire on Sept. 26. The sophomore also finished with double digits in saves against Concordia on Oct. 2, stopping 10 of the 12 Cobber shots he faced.
• CAREER FIRST, PART II: Jacob Wing (Verona, Wis.) earned his first career win — in his first collegiate start — in the Cardinals' 3-1 win over Edgewood on Sept. 4. Wing made two saves, with the lone goal coming on a penalty kick. … Wing and Connor Petrich (Arden Hills, Minn.) combined on a two-save shutout against Martin Luther on Sept. 6. Wing stopped both shots he faced in 71:38, while Petrich did not face a shot in 18:22 of relief.
• THE END: The Cardinals had their three-game winning streak come to a screeching halt on Sept. 15, as Carleton scored two goals in less than two minutes early in the first half in handing Saint Mary's a 2-1 setback in the teams' conference opener. After opening the season with a 3-0 loss to the University of Dubuque, the Cardinals had answered with wins over Edgewood (3-1), Martin Luther (5-0), and Simpson (1-0).
• STREAKING ALONG: The Cardinals have now put together a three-game winning streak for the second time in three seasons. The last time SMU won four consecutive games was in 2000, when the Cardinals beat Coe (2-1), Central-Iowa (2-0), Loras (2-0), and St. Thomas (1-0).
• NIGHT AND DAY: Saint Mary's has scored 10 of its 16 goals this season after halftime. On the flip side, the Cardinals' opponents have netted 15 of their 23 goals in the game's opening 45 minutes.
• CLOSE CALLS: The Cardinals battled Saint John's to a scoreless deadlock through 90 minutes of regulation on Sept. 18, but the Johnnies would score the game's only goal less than three minutes into the first overtime in dealing SMU a 1-0 setback. It was the third time in a six-month span that SMU and SJU have played a game decided by one goal or less. The two teams battled to a 0-0 draw on April 21, 2021, with the Cardinals winning the rematch 2-1 four days later.
• OFFENSIVE RESURGENCE: The Cardinals scored as many goals against Martin Luther on Sept. 6 (5) as they had in all five of their games combined a year ago.
• PERFECTION: With their 5-0 win over Martin Luther on Sept. 6, the Cardinals improved to 6-0-0 all-time against the Knights. Saint Mary's has outscored MLC 21-0 in its six meetings. |
• FOR THE RECORD: Hamline enters Saturday's home matchup against Saint Mary's sitting at 2-10-2 overall and still searching for its first conference win of the season (0-5-2).
• LAST ACTION: Saint John's scored with 29 seconds remaining in regulation, breaking a 1-1 deadlock and dealing Hamline a 2-1 setback.
• IN A FUNK: With their 2-1 loss to Saint John's last Saturday, Hamline saw its winless streak climb to nine (0-7-2). HU has not won since posting back-to-back 1-0 victories over Bethany Lutheran and UM-Morris on Sept. 8 and Sept. 10.
• NAILBITERS: Seven of Hamline's 14 games have been decided by one goal or less, including each of HU's last three contests — in which the Pipers tied St. Scholastica (1-1), and lost to both Carleton (3-2) and Saint John's (2-1).
• OT WOES: Hamline has played six overtime games this season, and are winless in all six — losing to UW-Eau Claire (4-3) and Simpson (2-1) in overtime; beating UM-Morris (1-0) and losing to Augsburg (1-0) in double-overtime, and tying Bethel (1-1) and St. Scholastica (1-1).
• FINDING THE BACK OF THE NET: Robert Cooper has scored a team-leading five goals for the Pipers, two more than Logan Weller and three in front of Alex Rouse. Jared Garcia, Jude Le, and Nate Vogel have netted HU's other three goals.
 • LENDING ASSISTANCE: Weller has racked up a team-leading three assists. Jake Sullivan is second with two helpers, and Cooper, Garcia, and Rouse all own one assist.
• POINT PERSON: Along with his team-leading five goals, Cooper also owns the team lead in points with 11, two in front of Weller.
• GAME-WINNER: Cooper and Garcia have scored Hamline's two game-winning goals this season.
• NOT AUTOMATIC: The Pipers are just 1-for-5 in penalty kick tries this season, with Garcia the only Piper to convert on a PK this season.
• BETWEEN THE PIPES: Luke Rimington has started all 14 games in goal for the Pipers and has played all but eight minutes between the pipes this season. Rimington — who has stopped 74 of the 104 shots he's faced — has compiled a 2.01 goals-against-average and a .712 save percentage.
• OFFENSIVE WOES: The Pipers have been held to one goal or less in 12 of their 14 games this season, the lone exceptions a 4-3, overtime loss to UW-Eau Claire on Sept. 1, and a 3-2 loss to Carleton on Oct. 13. On the flip side, Hamline has allowed three or more goals in a game five times — including a season-high five goals against in a 5-0 loss to St. Olaf on Sept. 18
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