MENOMONIE, Wis. – The Saint Mary's men's hockey team took on the UW-Stout Blue Devils in their first road match in Wisconsin of two for the weekend. The Cardinals fell to the Blue Devils 3-2 Friday night.
 
The Blue Devils opened the game firing the first four shots leading to the early goal at the second minute to tally the one goal lead. The Cardinals fell back to defend their zone as the Blue Devils kept pouring shot attempts on the Cardinals end.
 
The first shot for Saint Mary's did not come until the seventh minute on a power play from Nathan Solis, saved by the goalie.
 
Beginning to settle in, the Cardinals began trading off shots with the Blue Devils until the end of the period recording just four shots on goal. Stout ended the period with another goal for a two goal lead.

Saint Mary's opened the second period of action earning a power play, Solis taking the first crack at the third minute. Immediately after the advantage, Stout found themselves on a power play and nailed a goal with a comfortable three goal lead.
 
30 seconds later, the Cardinals responded with a goal from Jake Cameron, the first of his career, to get on the board. Marc Fletemeyer skated through the middle dishing a pass to the right of Cameron who netted a deep shot at the 10^th minute.
 
Stout applied pressure forcing the Cardinal goalie AJ Ruskowski to make crucial saves to keep the two goal deficit. Stout had the last 11 shots of the period including, two minutes of power play advantage but the Cardinals held them to the one goal in the second period.
 
The Cardinals were the aggressor in the third period as shots from Liam McInnis and Cole Mickel brought the team a burst of energy. Colin Tushie had the best look for a second goal as the Cardinals were yet again five on four to open the third.
 
The teams traded trips to the penalty box and the Cardinals capitalized after Tushie's second look landed in the back of the net. Poellinger beat his defender to the other end of the ice and found a trailing Tushie and fed with a fancy between the legs pass for a beautiful play to land the second goal for the team with five minutes remaining.
 
The Cardinals last chance at a tie breaker came from Poellinger with three minutes remaining but did not have the last push.
 
The Cardinals fall 1-2 on the early season. The Cardinals head back to Wisconsin to take on 11^th ranked UW-Stevens Point tomorrow at 7 p.m.