WINONA, Minn. — After splitting its previous two conference series — and dropping a 2-0 decision to Saint John's in their first meeting on Thursday — the Cardinals entered Saturday's rematch with the Johnnies looking to extend their run to three consecutive splits.
Mission accomplished.
Saint Mary's erupted for seven goals, including three in both the second and third periods, as the Cardinals routed the Johnnies 7-3 at the Saint Mary's Ice Arena — and earned that third straight conference split.
After coming up empty in Game 1 of the two-game series on Thursday — falling 2-0 at the Herb Brooks National Hockey Center in St. Cloud, Minn. — the Cardinals got their offense rolling early in the rematch.
And they never took their foot off the gas.
Jackson Nauss (Maple Plain, Minn.) scored his second goal of the season — banging home a
Jack Campion (Crystal, Minn.) rebound at 9:45 of the opening period — to give SMU the early advantage. Saint John's would net the equalizer before the period drew to a close, however, as Auggie Moore beat SMU goalie A.J. Ruskowski (Traverse City, Mich.) with 2:29 remaining.
Saint John's grabbed its first lead of the evening three minutes into the second period, when Rob Christy whistled a wrist shot from the slow past Ruskowski to put SJU up 2-1.
But the Cardinals came storming back, pulling even on a
Brady Lindauer (Cary, Ill.) goal at 12:30 of the middle period, and regaining the lead less than two minutes later on
Colin Tushie's sixth goal of the season.
Saint Mary's padded its lead to 4-2 on a picture-perfect give-and-go from
Thomas Magnavite (Chicago, Ill.) to Tushie and back to Magnavite, who one-timed the puck past SJU goalie Bailey Huber with 1:16 remaining in the second period.
The two teams traded early third-period goals — SMU's coming off the stick of
Callahan Nauss — before SMU iced the win with back-to-back power-play goals, the first a 5-on-3 tally by
Warner Young (Newberry, Mich.) with 8:32 to play and the second a PP goal by
Laudon Poellinger (La Crescent, Minn.) two minutes later.
The Cardinals (6-6-0 MIAC, 10-10-1 overall) hit the road next weekend for a pair of conference games against league-leading St. Scholastica. SMU and CSS will square off at 7 p.m. at Mars Lakeview Arena in Duluth, Minn., at 7 p.m. on Friday, before completing the two-game series with a 2 p.m. matinee the following afternoon.
