ST. CLOUD, Minn. — In a season that has had more than its share of highs and lows, Saint Mary's men's University hockey coach Ryan Egan was hoping his Cardinals could write a memorable ending Thursday evening.
 
Saint John's, however, refused to cooperate.
 
The Johnnies scored twice in the second period and added three more in the third, as Saint John's dealt Saint Mary's a season-ending 5-2 Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference setback.
 
After a scoreless first period, the Johnnies broke the ice at 5:13 of the second period. With the Cardinals on the powerplay, SJU's Dan Wieber was in the right place at the right time, corralling a loose puck and beating SMU goalie Al Rogers (North Haven, Conn.) for the shorthanded tally. It was the first time in 28 chances this season that the Cardinals had allowed a shorthanded goal.
 
Five minutes later, the Johnnies' lead jumped to 2-0 — and once again it was, "right place at the right time." Rogers made the initial save off an SJU shot, but the puck bounced off his pad, caromed off the leg of the Johnnies' Jack Kilroy and into the net.
 
Saint Mary's finally got on the board at 16:40 of the second period, when Trevor Schroder (Des Moines, Iowa) took a pass from Sam Schultz (Lakeland, Minn.) and banged the puck past SJU goalie Mac Berglove, cut the deficit to 2-1 heading into the third period.
 
Having already netted even-strength and shorthanded goals, the Johnnies added another special teams tally — this one a power-play goal four minutes into the third period off the stick of Cole Souto — to push the SJU advantage back to two, 3-1.
 
Saint John's got another favorable bounce to make it 4-1 at 10:08 of the third when Souto's shot clanked off the pipe and bounced right to Tristyn Sabina, who tapped the puck into the empty net.
 
Souto netted his second of the game — and of the period — at 16:45, scoring SJU's second power-play goal, before the Cardinals' Tyson Liverance (Burford, Ontario) rounded out the scoring with his third of the season with 1:07 remaining in regulation. Tommy Stang (Mendota Heights, Minn.) and Robert Roslund (Vanersborg, Sweden) — both playing in their final collegiate game — picked up the assists on Liverance's late goal.
 
Rogers finished with a season-high 36 saves in his final game in a Cardinal uniform — including all 14 in the scoreless first period — while Berglove stopped 27 of Saint Mary's 29 shots in goal for SJU.
 
The Cardinals close out the 2020-21 season with a 5-6-0 record.