ST. PETER, Minn. — If Saint Mary's University men's hockey coach Ryan Egan had any concerns about a second-game letdown when his Cardinals took the ice against Gustavus, Bud Winter (St. Louis, Mo.) put those concerns to rest — real fast.
 
Winter scored just 43 seconds into the opening period, and the Cardinals never took their foot off the accelerator, scoring four unanswered goals through the game's opening four minutes.
 
And four goals proved to be just enough, as Saint Mary's completed its Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference sweep of Gustavus with a 4-3 win Saturday evening at Don Roberts Ice Arena.
 
With Winter finding the back of the net before most in attendance had even settled into their seats, the Cardinals were off and running.
 
And by the time the game's opening 20 minutes had come to a close, Saint Mary's had amassed a commanding 3-0 lead, as Kellen Tharaldson (Wausau, Wis.) netted his first of the season at 10:52 of the opening frame and Nikita Sheberov (Obninsk, Russia) added his second in the last three games to join Winter as first-period goal-scorers.
 
After not scoring in his first 10 games — but putting up a team-leading six assists — Tharaldson was lighting the lamp for a second time, scoring SMU's fourth goal less than four minutes into the second period.
 
Trailing by three entering the game's final period, Gustavus decided to make things interesting, scoring three times in the first 10 minutes to whittle the Saint Mary's advantage to one, 4-3.
 
The Gusties foiled SMU goalie Matt Sankner's (Pennington, N.J.) shutout bid four minutes into the third period, and added two more goals in the next six minutes — and all of a sudden the Cardinals' comfortable 4-0 lead had transformed into a one-goal nailbiter.
 
Saint Mary's held the Gusties at bay over the game's final 10 minutes to seal win, and pull to .500 in conference play at 3-3-0.
 
Tharaldson wasn't the only offensive star for the Cardinals, as Laudon Poellinger (La Crescent, Minn.) and Warner Young (Newberry, Mich.) also posted two-point games, each collecting assists on two of SMU's four goals.
 
The Cardinals (3-3-0 MIAC, 3-6-1 overall) step out of conference play for their final game before the Christmas break next Saturday, playing host to Milwaukee School of Engineering in a 7:05 p.m. nonconference contest.
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