SAINT MARY’S CARDINALS

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2021-22: 8-14-1 Overall

LAKE FOREST FORESTERS

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2021-22: 7-18-2 Overall

LIVE ON THE WEB:

Live Stats * Streaming Video

SMU-LF * LAST MEETING:

Oct. 29-30, 2022 * Lake Forest, IL

L, 4-3 (ot); L, 3-0 * Series History

SAINT MARY’S * LAST ACTION:

Feb. 27, 2022 * St. Cloud, MN

Saint John’s * L, 5-1

LAKE FOREST * LAST ACTION:

Feb. 18-19, 2022 * Adrian, MI

Adrian * L, 2-1 / L, 3-1

SAINT MARY’S * UP NEXT:

Oct. 29, 2022

Lake Forest * 2 p.m.

SMU Ice Arena * Winona, MN

LAKE FOREST * UP NEXT: 

Oct. 29, 2022

Saint Mary’s * 2 p.m.

SMU Ice Arena * Winona, MN

SAINT MARY’S CARDINALS SCOUTING REPORT:

• FOR THE RECORD: Saint Mary’s closed out 2021-22 sitting at 8-14-1 overall, including a 5-7-0 in conference play. Saint Mary’s 5-7-0 MIAC mark earned the Cardinals the No. 6 seed in the nine-team conference playoffs.

• MIAC POST-SEASON: The Cardinals made their fifth appearance in the MIAC Playoffs since 2002 — and their first since 2019 — a year ago, falling to Saint John’s 5-1. … Saint Mary’s which has also appeared in the conference tournament in 2017, 2015, and 2004 — reached the MIAC championship game in 2015, falling to Hamline 4-2.

• LIGHTING THE LAMP: Gabe Potyk (Lake Orion, Mich.) closed out his freshman season leading the team with seven goals, two more than Matt Hutton (Carmel, Ind.), Brady Lindauer (Cary, Ill.), and Bud Winter (St. Louis, Mo.), while Ryan Stoynich (Calgary, Alberta), Laudon Poellinger (La Crescent, Minn.), and Nick Kiemel (Colorado Springs, Colo.) all finished with four goals. 

• FIRST AS A CARDINAL: The Cardinals boasted nine players who scored their first collegiate goals — Poellinger, Potyk, Hutton, Kasyn Kruse (Luverne, Minn.), Alex Cannon (South Bend, Ind.), Callahan Nauss (Wayzata, Minn.), Warner Young (Newberry, Mich.), Nathan Solis (Saline, Mich.), Trevor Paradise (Colorado Springs, Colo.), and Kellen Tharaldson (Wausau, Wis.).

• SPREADING THE WEALTH: it took 22 games, but the Cardinals finally had their first multiple-goal performance on Feb. 19, when Hutton scored two of SMU’s four goals in their 4-0 win over Bethel. Saint Mary’s did not have a player score two goals in a game in any of its first 21 contests.

• SPREADING THE WEALTH, TAKE 2: Saint Mary’s 10 points against Augsburg on Feb. 11— four goals and six assists — came to from 10 different players.

• LENDING A HAND: The Cardinals had a single-game season-high three players — Hutton, Cannon, and Tyson Liverance (Burford, Ontario), pick up two assists in SMU’s 4-1 win over Gustavus on Feb. 8. … Lindauer and Winter both had two assists in SMU’s 4-0 victory against Bethel on Feb. 26. … Nauss recorded a career-high four assists and Kellen Tharaldson chipped in a pair of helpers in SMU’s 4-1 win over Hamline on Jan. 21.

• LENDING A HAND, TAKE 2: Lindauer closed out the year with a team-best 11 assists, with Hutton sitting second with nine and Stoynich third with eight

• GIVING AN ASSIST x 4: Nauss’ four assists against Hamline on Jan. 21 marked the first time Saint Mary’s has had a player record four helpers in a game since Jack Stang achieved the feat against Augsburg on Jan. 31, 2020. 

• POINT PRODUCERS: The Cardinals boasted five players with 10 or more points — Lindauer (16), Hutton (14), Stoynich (12), Winter (11), and Schroder (10).

• CLOSING THE YEAR ON FIRE: Lindauer closed out his junior season recording at least one point in six of the team’s last seven games — scoring three goals and adding five assists in that span.

• NETTING THE GAME-WINNER: Saint Mary’s eight game-winning goals last season came from seven different players — Tharaldson owned two, with Poellinger, Schroder, Stoynich, Kruse, Potyk, and Liverance accounting for the other six.

• BETWEEN THE PIPES: Matt Sankner (Pennington, N.J.) closed out his freshman campaign boasting a 2.83 goals-against-average and .910 save percentage in 15 appearances (752:15). Sankner, who recorded his first collegiate win with a career-high 35-save effort against Saint John’s on Nov. 18, equaled that career-high with 35 saves against MSOE on Dec. 7. Sankner stopped 30 or more shots five times.… Connor Close (Des Moines, Iowa) recorded a season-high 32-save showing in the Cardinals’ 2-1 loss to Hamline on Jan. 22. Close — who collected his first collegiate win against UW-River Falls on Jan. 15 — owned a 2.78 GAA and an .897 save percentage. … A.J. Ruskowski (Traverse City, Mich.) notched his first collegiate win on Nov. 5, making 28 saves in SMU’s 4-3 win over UW-Superior. Ruskowski followed up that effort by stopping a career-best 43 shots in the Cardinals’ 4-1 loss to UW-Eau Claire the following evening. … Ruskowski ended the year with a 4.57 GAA and an .860 save percentage.

• PITCHING A SHUTOUT: Sankner kicked out all 31 shots he faced in the Cardinals’ 4-0 win over Bethel on Feb. 19 en route to his first collegiate shutout. The 4-0 win was also Saint Mary’s first shutout victory of the season.

• AS A TEAM: The Cardinals ended the year with 57 goals — including 13 power-play tallies — while adding 97 assists for 154 points. … Saint Mary’s scored a season-high four goals six times — beating Gustavus 4-1 on Feb. 8, Hamline 4-2 on Jan. 21, UW-Superior 4-3 on Nov. 5, St. Olaf 4-1 on Dec. 3, and Bethel 4-0 on Feb. 19; and falling to Augsburg 5-4 on Feb. 11.

• PEPPERING THE NET: The Cardinals’ season-high 57 shots on goal against Bethel on Feb. 18 were the most since the Cardinals peppered Northland with 61 shots on goal on Nov. 21, 2006.

• FIRST-GOAL SUCCESS: In 19 of Saint Mary’s 23 games, the team that has scored first has gone on to win. The Cardinals were 6-1-0 when scoring first, while going 2-13-1 when their opponent nets the game’s first goal.

• WORKING OVERTIME: The Cardinals’ 3-3 tie against Lawrence on Nov. 23 was their third OT contest of the season. SMU dropped a 3-2 overtime decision to Saint John’s on Nov. 20, while falling 4-3 in OT to Lake Forest in its season-opener on Nov. Oct. 29.

• NEW THIS YEAR:The MIAC point system has changed and both men and women are using the same point system this year. The points breakdown is: Regulation win (3 points), Overtime/Shootout win (2 points), Overtime/Shootout loss (1 point), Regulation loss (0 points).

LAKE FOREST FORESTERS SCOUTING REPORT:

• FOR THE RECORD: The Foresters head into their season-opening nonconference series against Saint Mary’s coming off a 7-18-2 overall record a year ago, including a 5-11-2 mark in Northern Collegiate Hockey Association (NCHA) competition.

• LAST TIME OUT: Lake Forest’s 2021-22 season came to an end in the NCHA Harris Cup quarterfinals, falling to Adrian 2-1 and 3-1 in the teams’ two-game series.

• UPS AND DOWNS: After opening the 2021-22 season with a sweep of Saint Mary’s, the Foresters went 1-5-1 in their next seven games, before recording its second two-game winning streak with a sweep of Finlandia. Over their final 17 games, however, Lake Forest managed just three wins, slumping to the end with a 3-13-1 showing.

• MIAC FOES: Lake Forest played just four games against Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference opponents a year ago, sweeping Saint Mary’s (4-3, 3-0) and falling twice to Bethel (4-0, 3-2).

• RANKED OPPONENTS: The Foresters played eight games against teams that were nationally ranked at the time of their meeting. Lake Forest lost twice to both No. 9 Aurora (4-0, 5-2) and No. 7 St. Norbert, while dropping all four meetings with No. 1-ranked and national champion Adrian (7-4, 8-3, 2-1, 3-1). 

• HOME SWEET HOME: Four of Lake Forest’s seven wins came on their home ice in 2021-22. The Foresters finished 4-6-1 at home, while going 3-12-1 away from Alumni Memorial Arena.

• OFFENSIVE LEADER: Josh Giacomin closed out the season last year with a team-leading 11 goals, two more than Ben Perkins, with Jared Gerger sitting in third with eight tallies. … Twenty Foresters scored at least one goal for LF last season.

• LENDING A HELPING HAND: Along with his team-leading 11 goals, Giacomin also led the Foresters in assists with 21, followed by Perkins with 11, and Cullen Kane and Tyler Nielsen with nine each. 

• POINT PRODUCTION: Lake Forest closed out the 2021-22 season boasting seven players with 10 or more points, led by Giacomin with 32 and Perkins with 20. Kane (13), Gerger (13), Matteas Derraugh (13), Nielsen (12), and David Cohen (11) also finished the year in double digits in points.

• NETTING THE GAME-WINNER: Lake Forest’s seven game-winning goals came from six different players. Gerger owns a pair of game-winners, with Giacomin, Kyle Cote, Noah Furman, Scotty Nicholson, and Connor Sullivan accounting for the other five.

• BETWEEN THE PIPES: Nick Wiencek and Carson Poulin shared the goaltending duties a year ago, with Wiencek appearing 19 games, including 18 starts, while Poulin made nine starts among his 11 games between the pipes. … Wiencek led the Foresters with a 3.19 goals-against-average and a .906 save percentage, with Poulin closing out the year with a 4.65 GAA and .870 save %. … Wiencek was in goal for six of Lake Forest’s seven wins and delivered the team’s lone shutout — a 40-save effort against Saint Mary’s on Oct. 30, 2021.

• BY THE NUMBERS: Thirteen of Lake Forest’s 27 games last season were decided by one goal or less. The Foresters finished 3-8-2 in those 13 contests. … Lake Forest netted four or more goals eight times a year ago — including a season-high 10-goal effort in a 10-3 drubbing of Finlandia on Dec. 4. On the flip side, the Foresters allowed four or more goals in a game 13 times, including allowing seven goals three times, as well as a season-high eight in falling to No. 1 Adrian 8-3 on Jan. 22.