NORTHFIELD, Minn. — After equaling their season high with four goals in Friday's 4-1 Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference win over St. Olaf, the Cardinals took to the ice Saturday in search of another high-scoring offensive display — and another victory.
 
The Cardinals managed just half of Friday's offensive output — but half was enough, as Saint Mary's held off the Oles' third-period charge to complete its conference sweep with a 2-1 victory at the St. Olaf Ice Arena.
 
The Cardinals did not waste any time taking control of the teams' rematch, scoring twice in the first 10 minutes of the opening period.
 
Gabe Potyk (Lake Orion, Mich.) got Saint Mary's off-and-running, netting his second of the season — off assists from Brady Lindauer (Cary, Ill.) and Trevor Paradise (Colorado Springs, Colo.) — just 4:02 into the first period.
 
Five minutes later, SMU's lead doubled, as Kellen Theraldaon (Wausau, Wis.) was on the receiving end of a tic-tac-toe exchange with Trevor Schroder (Des Moines, Iowa) and Kasyn Kruse (Luverne, Minn.), scoring his first goal as a Cardinal to give Saint Mary's a 2-0 lead.
 
After coming up empty for more than 50 minutes, the Oles finally solved Saint Mary's goalie Matt Sankner (Pennington, N.H.), as Tyler Cooper beat the Cardinal freshman with 8:22 remaining in regulation to cut the SMU lead in half.
 
Saint Mary's would hold off the Oles down the stretch in claiming their first conference sweep of the season.
 
Sankner allowed just the one goal, stopping 25 of the 26 shots he faced, while St. Olaf goalie Lukas Haugen made 33 saves.
 
The Cardinals (3-3-0 MIAC, 4-7-1 overall) step out of play for their final game of 2021 on Tuesday, when they head to Kern Center in Milwaukee, Wis., for a 7 p.m. nonconference game against Milwaukee School of Engineering