WINONA, Minn. — With Thanksgiving just two days away, the Saint Mary's University men's hockey team was hoping its offense would do a little pre-Thanksgiving feasting when the Cardinals took the ice Tuesday evening against Lawrence.
And feast they did.
Saint Mary's erupted for a season-high eight goals — including six in the second period — as the Cardinals snapped a five-game losing streak with an 8-4 rout of the Vikings in a nonconference matchup at the Saint Mary's Ice Arena.
Lawrence actually struck first, getting the first of two goals off the stick of Cory Checco at 13:20 of the opening period to take a brief 1-0 lead.
Blake Arneson (Red Wing, Minn.) did not wait long to knot the game at 1-1, scoring his first collegiate goal just 1:32 after Checco's tally to pull SMU even after the first period.
And then the fun began.
Bud Winter (St. Louis, Mo.) scored his first of the night just 32 seconds into the middle frame, only to have Checco answer with goal No. 2 47 second later to tie the game once again, this time at 2-2.
By the time the Vikings found the back of the net for a third time — on a goal by Cole Schneider at 15:21 — the Cardinals had already lit the lamp four times, getting goals from
Callahan Nauss (Maple Grove, Minn.),
Noah Kiemel (Colorado Springs, Colo.),
Nick Kiemel (Colorado Springs, Colo.) and
Colin Tushie (Prior Lake Minn.).
Winter would cap the Cardinals' six-goal period with his second of the night, and team-leading fifth of the season, with 14 seconds to play to give SMU a commanding 7-3 advantage with 20 minutes to play.
The teams traded third-period goals, SMU's coming off the stick of
Nikita Sheberov (Obninsk, Russia), and the Cardinals coasted to their second win on the season.
Matt Sankner (Pennington, N.J.) picked up the win in goal for SMU, stopping 23 of Lawrence's 27 shots on goal, while a pair of Viking goalies combined to post 25 saves.
The Cardinals (2-7-0 overall) are now off until Dec. 1-2, when they played a pair of conference games against Gustavus. SMU will head to GAC's Don Roberts Ice Arena in St. Peter, Minn., for a 7:05 matchup on Dec. 1, with the two teams then heading to the SMU Ice Arena for the 7:05 p.m. rematch the following evening.
