| Tuesday's game against St. Thomas is the final home game of the season for the Cardinals — and the final time Saint Mary's and UST will square off as members of the MIAC. The Tommies are leaving the conference after this season. … The Cardinals snapped a two-game losing streak with last Saturday's 6-5 overtime win over Bethel. … The Cardinals' six goals against Bethel were a season-high and the most in a game since netting seven against Hamline on Feb. 8. … Tommy Stang (Mendota Heights, Minn.) scored the overtime game-winner against the Royals last Saturday less than two minutes into the extra period. Bud Winter (St. Louis, Mo.) and Sam Hanson (Eau Claire, Wis.) both scored twice, and Brady Lindauer (Cary, Ill. And Nick Kiemel (Colorado Springs, Colo.) netted the other two. … Hanson also picked up an assist vs. the Royals for his first collegiate two-goal and three-point game. … Kiemel's first-period goal against Bethel last Saturday marked the second straight game in which the Cardinals had a player net his first collegiate goal — Nolan Dawson (Rocky View County, Alberta) tallied his first as a Cardinal against St. Thomas the previous night. … Saint Mary's has now had five players score their first goals in a Cardinal uniform — Kiemel, Dawson, Winter, Andrew Froese (Traverse City, Mich.), and Trevor Schroeder (Des Moines, Iowa). … With his two goals against Bethel, Winter has now recorded two-goal games twice and has posted four multiple-point games — including each of his last two games. … Lindauer had a hand in all three Cardinal goals against St. Scholastica on March 2, scoring twice and assisting on Ryan Stoynich's (Calgary, Alberta) goal. … The two-goal and three-point effort was the first of Lindauer's collegiate career. … Lindauer is the third Cardinal to post a multiple-goal game this season, joining Froese, Winter, and Hanson. Froese recorded his first collegiate hat trick against Gustavus on Feb. 23, while Winter notched his first two-goal game as a Cardinal on Feb. 6. … Froese's hat trick was the first by a Cardinal since 2015-16, when Bob Kinne, Jared Johnson, and Jay Heinle all recorded three-goal games. … Stoynich picked up a single-game career-high three assists against Gustavus on Feb. 23. Stoynich's three points were also a single-game career-best. … Winter enters Tuesday's matchup against St. Thomas owning a team-high six goals, two more than Lindauer, Stang, and Froese. … Stoynich is the team's assist leader with eight, while he and Winter share the top spot in points with 11, one more than Lindauer. … Stang, Froese, Winter, Hanson, and Jack Hatton (Naperville, Ill.) own Saint Mary's five game-winning goals. … Al Rogers (North Haven, Conn.) — who made 34 saves against St. Thomas last Friday and added a 32-save effort against Bethel the next night — has started six of the Cardinals' eight games in goal, owning a 3.52 goals-against-average and .897 save percentage. … Rogers made a season-high 35 saves in Saint Mary's first meeting with St. Thomas on Feb. 27 and has now stopped 30 or more shots in a game eight times in his collegiate career. … Connor Close (Des Moines, Iowa) stopped 33 Bethel shots in his first collegiate start in goal for the Cardinals on Feb. 2. … Fifteen of the Cardinals' 31 goals this season have been scored in the second period. SMU has netted just five first-period goals through eight games. … Saint Mary's has scored the game's first goal in seven of its eight contests this season. … With their 4-2 loss to St. Thomas and 6-5 overtime win over Bethel last weekend, Saint Mary's has played 23 games decided by one goal or less — including 13 that have gone into overtime — over the last three seasons. … The Cardinals held leads of 1-0, 2-1, and 3-2 against St. Scholastica on March 2, but the Saints rattled off seven unanswered goals in beating SMU 9-3. … The Cardinals had their season-opening four-game winning streak snapped on Feb. 27, as St. Thomas scored four unanswered goals in beating Saint Mary's 4-2. … The Cardinals' 4-0-0 start to the season marked the first time since 1972-73 that SMU opened with four straight wins. The 1972-73 team opened the season with 11 straight wins. |
Friday's game against Saint Mary's was the Tommies' fourth home game of the season. UST is 2-1-1 on its home ice, while sporting a perfect 2-0-0 mark away from the St. Thomas Ice Arena. … St. Thomas is coming off a 4-3 win over Saint Mary's, getting the game-winning goal with less than five minutes remaining in regulation. … UST's offensive performance against Saint Mary's last Friday marked the second straight game in which the Tommies scored four goals. UST also netted four goals in its 5-4, overtime loss to Bethel on March 3. … St. Thomas' 5-4 loss to Bethel on March 3 — in which the Royals' scored with 50 seconds remaining in overtime — snapped the Tommies' nine-game unbeaten streak, dating back to a 3-2 loss to Hamline on Feb. 15, 2020. … Bethel's five goals in their 5-4 OT win over UST equaled the combed goals the Tommies had allowed in their first four games. … Spencer Zwienger scored twice against Saint Mary's last Friday, while Austin Nault and Josh Maucieri netted the other two. … Zwienger and Jackson Bond enter Tuesday's game against Saint Mary's owning a team-leading four goals, two more than Grant Loven, Joey Sofo, and Kimball Johnson. … All four of Bond's goals came in UST's 4-2 win over Saint Mary's on Feb. 27. … The goals by Nault and Maucieri against Saint Mary's last Friday were collegiate firsts. … Loven owns the team lead in both assists (5) and points (7). … Zwienger owns a team-high two game-winning goals, with Bond and Jack Vincent netting the other two. … Jake Berger and Henry Baribeau have shared the goaltending duties, with Berg compiling a 2.04 goals-against-average and .924 save percentage in five appearances, while Baribeau boasts a 2.23 GAA and .921 save percentage in three outings. … Berger — who made 34 saves against Saint Mary's last Friday — stopped all 19 shots he faced in shutting out Gustavus on Feb. 25. … As a team, St. Thomas has outscored its opponents 9-3 in the first period and 7-3 in the third. … The Tommies are 2-1-0 when scoring the game's first goal, and 2-0-1 when their opponent scores first. … UST is unbeaten (3-0-0) when leading after two periods.
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