MENOMONIE, Wis. — When the Saint Mary's University men's hockey team squared off against UW-Stout in an exhibition game on Oct. 23, the Cardinals and Blue Devils put on quite a show in a game that ended in a thrilling, 3-2 OT win for Saint Mary's.
Friday evening, the Cardinals and Blue Devils squared off once again — this time in a regular-season nonconference showdown — and once again the fans certainly got their money's worth.
If you were a Blue Devils' fan, that is.
UW-Stout scored five unanswered goals — including four in the second period — erasing a 2-1 Saint Mary's lead and leading the Blue Devils to a 6-3 victory over the Cardinals at Dunn County Arena.
The Cardinals wasted no time shaking off the rust of not having played in more than 30 days, as
Nick Kiemel (Colorado Springs, Colo.) got Saint Mary's on the board less than two minutes into the opening period to give SMU an early 1-0 lead.
While Saint Mary's struck early in the opening stanza, the Blue Devils waited until late in the period, getting the equalizer off the stick of Nick Bowlin with just 3:45 remaining to make it 1-1 heading into the first intermission.
The quick-striking Cardinals were at it again early in the second period — just 1:45 into the middle frame to be exact — getting a goal by
Laudon Poellinger (La Crescent, Minn.) to regain the upper hand, 2-1.
UW-Stout didn't wait until the waning minutes of the period to pull even this time around, as Payton Hart scored the Blue Devils' second goal of the game less than four minutes after Poellinger's tally to make it 2-2.
And, unfortunately for the Cardinals, the Blue Devils' offense was just warming up.
Seven minutes later, the Blue Devils — thanks to a goal by Noah Carson — found themselves playing with the lead for the first time, 3-2.
That lead ballooned to 5-2 over the period's final 3:04, as Mikey Butcher and Matt Dahlseide would beat SMU goalie A.J. Ruskowski (Traverse City, Mich.) with UW-Stout's third and fourth goals of the period for a 5-2 advantage heading into the game's final period.
UW-Stout tacked on its fifth straight goal midway through the third period, this one coming off the stick of Raphael Gosselin to make it 6-2, before Saint Mary's
Trevor Paradise (Colorado Springs, Colo.) closed out the scoring with his second of the season at 16:08.
Ruskowski finished with 25 saves between the pipes for the Cardinals, while UW-Stout goalie Zack Cloutier stopped 33 of Saint Mary's 36 shots in goal for the Blue Devils.
The Cardinals (4-9-0 overall) close out the nonconference portion of their schedule on Saturday, heading to UW-River Falls Hunt Arena in River Falls, Wis., for a 7 p.m. showdown against the Falcons.
