WINONA, Minn. — After back-to-back ties in their last two contests, the Saint Mary's University men's hockey team wasn't about to leave the SMU Ice Arena with a third straight deadlock Friday evening against Northland.
 
Carter Newpower (Cottage Grove, Minn.) and Bud Winter (St. Louis, Mo.) made sure of it.
 
Newpower and Winter both scored two goals, and Laudon Poellinger (La Crescent, Minn.) delivered three assists, in leading the Cardinals to a 5-3 nonconference win over the Lumberjacks at the Saint Mary's Ice Arena.
 
Northland struck first, breaking through six minutes into the opening frame when Evan Ilkos corralled a loose puck and feathered a shot past SMU goalie Matt Sankner (Pennington, N.J.)
 
After clanking two shots off the pipe and coming up empty on a breakaway, the Cardinals finally netted the equalizer at 13:40 of the opening period, as Newpower banged a loose puck past Northland goalie Viktor Wennberg for his first collegiate goal — and a 1-1 tie.
 
SMU would rattle another shot off the iron in the final minute, and headed into the locker room after 20 minutes deadlocked with the Lumberjacks, 1-1.
 
The stalemate did not last long once the teams returned to the ice for period No. 2, as Newpower notched his second of the game, off an assist from Nathan Solis (Saline, Mich.), just 1:38 into the middle frame for a 2-1 SMU lead.
 
Northland found the back of the net with the equalizer with 5:45 remaining in the second, leaving the two teams deadlocked for a second straight intermission, this time 2-2.
 
Special teams proved to be the different in the game's final 20 minutes, as the two teams combined to score three power-play goals — including two off the stick of Winter.
 
The Cardinals regained the lead two minutes into the third period — thanks in part to back-to-back Northland penalties and the resulting on 5-on-3 power play.
 
Winter was on the goal-scoring end of a perfect tic-tac-toe passing combination with Poellinger and Callahan Nauss (Maple Plain, Minn.), netting his team-leading sixth goal of the season at 2:19 to put SMU back in front, 3-2.
 
The Lumberjacks took advantage of back-to-back power plays to knot the game at 3-3 midway through the third period. SMU killed off the first of its two straight minor penalties, but Ilkos scored for the second time on the Lumberjacks' second power play with 9:48 to play in regulation.
 
Saint Mary's enjoyed a third man advantage situation with less than six minutes remaining — and needed just eight seconds to retake the lead, thanks to Winter's second of the period. Poellinger and Kellen Tharaldson (Wausau, Wis.) picked up the assists on Winter's seventh of the season.
 
Gabe Potyk (Lake Orion, Mich.) made sure there would be no late-game Northland heroics that would force a third consecutive overtime game, scoring an empty-net goal with 2.5 seconds to play to seal the nonconference victory.
 
Sankner finished with 19 saves in earning the win in goal for Saint Mary's, while Wennberg kicked out 33 of the 37 SMU shots he faced.
 
The Cardinals (3-8-2 overall) are right back on their home ice on Saturday, as they welcome ninth-ranked UW-Eau Claire to the Saint Mary's Ice Arena for a 7:05 nonconference matchup.
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