MILWAUKEE, Wis. — After failing to net a goal in its season-opening loss to Lake Forest on Friday night, the Saint Mary's University men's hockey team found the back of the net three times against Milwaukee School of Engineering Saturday afternoon.
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The Raiders' offense, however, proved to be just a bit more potent, as MSOE rattled off three unanswered goals in a three-minute span midway through the second period and held the Cardinals at bay over the game's final 20 minutes in dealing Saint Mary's a 6-3 nonconference setback at Kern Center.
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Saint Mary's, which came up empty in an 8-0 season-opening loss to Lake Forest on Friday, opened the scoring just 3:13 into the first period on a goal by
Bud Winter (St. Louis, Mo.). The Raiders — coming off a 4-1 upset of 15th-ranked Babson in its season-opener on Friday — answered with a goal by Brennan Dickey at 11:57, and the two teams headed into the locker room after one period deadlocked at 1-1.
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Kellen Tharaldson (Wausau, Wis.) gave the Cardinals their second lead of the afternoon, netting his first goal of the season six minutes into the middle frame, only to have MSOE answer with back-to-back-to-back goals to carry a 4-2 advantage into the game's final 20 minutes.
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Clay Allen (Anchorage, Alaska) pulled Saint Mary's within one, 4-3, on his first goal as a Cardinal just 44 seconds into the third period, but that was as close as SMU would get. MSOE answered Allen's goal with one of its own at 4:15, and Carson Jones tacked on an empty-netter with 28 seconds to play to ice the Raider victory.
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Matt Sankner (Pennington, N.J.) was busy between the pipes for the Cardinals, stopping 34 of the Raiders' 40 shots on goal. MSOE goalie Nick Stofcheck, meanwhile, finished with 24 saves.
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The Cardinals (0-2-0 overall) kick off Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference play next weekend, hosting Hamline in a 7:05 p.m. contest on Friday at the SMU Ice Arena, before heading to TRIA Rink in St. Paul, Minn., for the 5 p.m. rematch the following evening.
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