WINONA, Minn. — The Saint Mary's University men's hockey team could not have scripted a better beginning to its Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference showdown against Saint John's.
 
And the ending wasn't too shabby, either.
 
Saint Mary's scored the only two goals of the first period — and the only two goals of the third — as the Cardinals kicked off their two-game conference series against the Johnnies with a 5-3 victory Thursday evening at the SMU Ice Arena.
 
With the win, the Cardinals improved to 5-5-1 in conference play — and their 16 points put them just two points back of the fifth-place Johnnies in their quest for one of the five coveted post-season invitations.
 
The Cardinals struck first, netting the first goal of the game midway through the opening period. Fresh off foiling the Johnnies' first power-play opportunity of the evening, Colin Tushie (Prior Lake, Minn.) took a feed from Jack Campion (Crystal, Minn.) and rifled a shot past SJU goalie Bailey Huber to give SMU the 1-0 advantage.
 
But Saint Mary's was not satisfied with a one-goal cushion after 20 minutes, as Jake Vaughn (Colorado Springs, Colo.) picked up his first of the season — off an assist from Nathan Solis (Saline, Mich.) with just over two minutes to play to extend SMU's lead to 2-0 heading into the first intermission.
 
SJU came out flying to open the second period and just 2:01 into the frame, the Johnnies had cut the SMU lead in half, as Jacob McPartland stuffed a loose puck past Ruskowski to make it a 2-1 game.
 
The one-goal advantage, however, lasted all of a minute.
 
With SJU's Cody Carlson in the box serving a two-minute minor for charging the goalie, the Cardinals struck back on Bud Winter's (St. Louis, Mo.) ninth of the season, assisted by Tushie and Kellen Tharaldson (Wausau, Wis.), returning SMU's lead to two, 3-1 — and the period wasn't even four minutes old.
 
Saint John's cut into Saint Mary's lead for a second time midway through the middle frame, getting a rebound goal from Jack Olsen. Ruskowski made the initial save on a blast by Justin Thompson, but the rebound bounced right to Olsen, who deposited the puck past the downed Cardinal goaltender.
 
Michael Spinner capped the game's four-goal second period, scoring SJU's third of the period — an unassisted tally at 15:31 — leaving the teams deadlocked at 3-3 heading into the game's final 20-minute period.
 
The third period did not have nearly the offensive fireworks as the second, with only two shots finding the back of the net.
 
Fortunately for Saint Mary's, both of those shots came off the sticks of Cardinal players.
Tharaldson whistled a shot through a mass of bodies in front of the SJU net and past Huber to give the lead back to the Cardinals, 4-3, with just over 15 minutes to play in regulation,
 
The Cardinals made things tough on themselves, being whistled for back-to-back minor penalties midway through the third period, but the SMU penalty kill was up to the challenge — keeping SJU off the board and maintaining that one-goal cushion.
 
Tushie iced the win with his second goal of the game, an empty-netter with 6.3 seconds remaining, and Ruskowski chipped in a season-high 41 saves — two shy of his career best.
 
The Cardinals (5-5-1 MIAC, 7-11-2 overall) and Johnnies will square off for the second game of their two-game series on Saturday, when the two teams head to the Herb Brooks National Hockey Center in St. Cloud, Minn. Opening face-off is slated for 7 p.m.
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