WINONA, Minn. — There were plenty of "lasts" at the Saint Mary's Ice Arena Tuesday evening when the Saint Mary's University men's hockey team squared off against St. Thomas for the third time this season.
 
• It was the last home game of the season for the Cardinals.
 
• It was the last-ever home game for the Cardinals' six graduating seniors.
 
• And it was the last time Saint Mary's and St. Thomas would ever face each other as NCAA Division III hockey programs.
 
Unfortunately for the Cardinals, the third time against the Tommies was not the charm, as St. Thomas scored the game's final three goals — including the game-winning tally with 36.1 seconds remaining in overtime — as UST dealt Saint Mary's a 4-3 setback
 
"It's a tough way for the seniors to go out, but they played their hearts out tonight and have absolutely no reason to hang their heads," said Cardinal coach Ryan Egan. "This is an amazing senior class, and it would have been great for them to leave their home arena with a W tonight — it just wasn't meant to be."
 
For just the second time in the Saint Mary's nine games this season, the Cardinals did not score the game's first goal Tuesday evening. UST — which came up empty on all 17 first-period shots against SMU goalie Al Rogers (North Haven, Conn.) — finally got one past the senior netminder at 2:35 of the middle period on a goal by Spencer Zweiner.
 
With Rogers doing his part in the defensive end — stopping the final eight shots in faced in the middle period — the Cardinals got the equalizer at 14:08 of the second period, as freshman Nash Wood (Buford, Ga.) netted his first collegiate goal — off an assist from Nolan Dawson (Rocky View County, Alberta) — as the two teams headed into the lockerroom after 40 minutes deadlocked at 1-1.
 
And whatever between-period speech Egan gave his squad, it must have had an effect, because by the time the third period was five minutes old, his Cardinals were leading 3-1.
 
Sam Hanson (Eau Claire, Wis.) scored just 10 seconds into the third period, taking a pass from Brady Lindauer (Cary, Ill.) and rifling a shot past UST goalie Henry Baribeau for a 2-1 Saint Mary's lead.
 
Less than five minutes later, Saint Mary's struck again, this time getting a goal by Tyson Liverance (Burford, Ontario) — who blistered a shot past a screened Baribeau to give the Cardinals a 3-1 advantage.
 
The lead did not last long, however, as the Tommies took a page from the Cardinals' third-period, quick-striking playbook — scoring twice in a three-minute span to knot the game at 3-3.
 
St. Thomas made it a one-goal game at 10:28 of the third, when Zweiner's wrist shot clanked off the post and right onto the stick of Luke Radetic, who tapped it into the empty net behind Rogers.
 
Three minutes later, the game was back to even, as Austin Nault found the back of the net to knot the game at 3-3 with just over six minutes to play in regulation.
 
Both teams had good scoring chances in the game's final six minutes, but Rogers and Baribeau stood tall, sending the Cardinals to overtime for the second straight game.
 
Unlike Saturday's 6-5 OT win — in which Tommy Stang (Mendota Heights, Minn.) netted the game-winner less than two minutes into the extra session — Tuesday's overtime game-winner did not come until the waning seconds, when UST's Andrew Kangas slipped the puck through the Cardinal defenders, broke in alone and feathered the puck past Rogers.
 
Rogers — one of those six seniors playing his final game at the SMU Ice Arena — finished with 35 saves in goal for the Cardinals, while Baribeau made just 14 saves between the pipes for the Tommies.
 
The Cardinals (5-4-0 overall) are back in action on Tuesday, heading to the St. Olaf Ice Arena in Northfield, Minn., for a 7 p.m. nonconference game against the Oles.