NORTHFIELD, Minn. — The Saint Mary's University men's hockey team entered Friday's Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference game against St. Olaf in a rather foul mood — having a season-high six-game winning streak snapped in its previous contest will do that to a team.
 
And the Cardinals took out their frustrations on the host Oles.
 
Saint Mary's erupted for four first-period goals — including two in a span of 1:38 before the game was even four minutes old — as the Cardinals steamrolled the Oles 8-2.
 
St. Olaf had entered Friday's contest having had 12 of its 15 games decided by two goals or less, including three of its last six decided in overtime. The Cardinals, however, were in no mood to mess around — and they made that abundantly clear in the first period.
 
The Cardinals grabbed the upper hand before most of the fans at the St. Olaf Ice Arena had even gotten comfortable in their seats — grabbing a 2-0 lead in the game's opening four minutes.
 
Blake Campbell (Keller, Texas) got things rolling for Saint Mary's, netting his first collegiate goal at 2:08 of the opening frame, and, less than two minutes later, the Cardinal lead jumped to 2-0 on a tally by Gabe Potyk (Lake Orion, Mich.).
 
And Saint Mary's wasn't finished.
 
Nathan Solis (Saline, Mich.) pushed the SMU advantage to 3-0 midway through the period, and Nikita Sheberov (Obninsk, Russia) added his team-leading seventh goal — including five in the last four games — with three minutes to play to give the Cardinals a commanding 4-0 lead after 20 minutes of play.
 
There were no early-period fireworks in the middle frame — but there was another Saint Mary's goal. Andrew Froese (Traverse City, Mich.) became the fifth different Cardinal to find the back of the net, scoring his second of the season at 10:46 to extend SMU's lead to 5-0 heading into the third period.
 
Brady Lindauer (Cary, Ill.) joined the Cardinals' goal-scoring party five minutes into the third period, tallying his first of the season, and, after the Oles foiled goalie A.J. Ruskowski's (Traverse City, Mich.) shutout bid — scoring back-to-back goals 15 second apart — the senior netted his second of the game to put SMU in front 7-2.
 
Trevor Schroder (Des Moines, Iowa) capped the eight-goal Cardinal offensive barrage — the Cardinals' highest offensive output since scoring eight goals against Hamline on Feb. 23, 2014 — with his sixth goal of the season just 46 seconds after the second of Lindauer's two goals to round out the scoring.
 
Ruskowski was busy between the pipes for the Cardinals, making a career-high 42 saves, while Saint Mary's scored its eight goals on just 23 shots.
 
The Cardinals (4-3-0 MIAC, 8-7-1 overall) and Oles will square off again on Saturday, heading to the Saint Mary's Ice Arena for the second game of their two-game conference series. Game time is slated for 7:05 p.m.
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