SAINT MARY’S CARDINALS

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2023-24: 8-7-1 MIAC, 10-13-2 Overall

ST. OLAF OLES

Home | Roster | Stats | Schedule

2023-24: 7-7-2 MIAC, 11-11-3 Overall

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MIAC PLAYOFFS:

Quarterfinal | Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2024

No. 5 St. Olaf at No. 4 Saint Mary's, 7:00

Semifinals | Saturday, Feb. 24, 2024
No. 4/5 at No. 1 Augsburg, 7:00
No. 3 St. Scholastica at No. 2 Bethel, 7:00

Championship | Saturday, Mar. 2, 2024
High seed host, 7:00

TICKETS:

All MIAC playoff contests must charge admission. 

Adults - $10 | Students - $2 (5-under free)

SMU students w/ ID – free (paid for by SMU athletic department)

SMU-STO * LAST MEETING:

Jan. 12-13, 2024

W, 5-3; W, 3-2 * Series History

SAINT MARY’S * LAST ACTION:

Feb. 16-17, 2024

Concordia * W, 4-3; W, 3-2

ST. OLAF * LAST ACTION:

Feb. 16-17, 2024

Gustavus * L, 4-0; W, 5-1

SAINT MARY’S SCOUTING REPORT

• FOR THE RECORD: Saint Mary’s heads into post-season play sitting at 10-13-2 overall, while finishing conference play at 8-7-1 record.

• LAST ACTION: The Cardinals picked up a pair of one-goal wins over Concordia in their two-game regular-season finale in Moorhead, Minn., beating the Cobbers 4-3 last Friday, before adding a 3-2 victory the following afternoon — thanks to Gabe Potyk’s (Orion, Mich.) game-winning goal with nine seconds remaining in regulation.

• PLAYOFF EXPERIENCE: Saint Mary’s is making its 16th MIAC Playoff appearance, and its first since the 2021-22 season, when the Cardinals dropped a 5-1 opening-round decision to Saint John’s. … SMU, which has appeared in the conference tournament in ?1986-87, 1987-88, 1988-89, 1989-90, 1990-91, 1991-92, 1992-93, 1993-94, 1994-95, 1995-96, 1996-97, 2003-04, 2014-15, 2016-17, 2018-19, 2020-21, owns a pair of MIAC Playoff titles — winning the event in 1988-89 and 1994-95.

• HOME SWEET HOME: Saint Mary’s boasts a 7-3-2 record on their home ice this season, while sitting at 3-10-0 away from the Saint Mary’s Ice Arena. … The Cardinals picked up their first road win with their 3-2 victory against St. Olaf on Jan. 13.

• LIGHTING THE LAMP: Bud Winter (St. Louis, Mo.) and Colin Tushie (Prior Lake, Minn.) have both reached double figures in goals heading into SMU’s playoff-opener against St. Olaf, with Winter leading the team with 11 goals, one more than Tushie. … 

Nikita Sheberov (Obninsk, Russia) is currently this on the team with six goals, followed by Noah Kiemel (Colorado Springs, Colo.) and Gabe Potyk (Orion, Mich.) with five each, and Kellen Tharaldson (Wausau, Wis.), Nick Kiemel (Colorado Springs, Colo.), and Carter Newpower (Cottage Grove, Minn.) with three apiece. … Winter netted SMU’s first goal of the season at 3:13 of the first period in SMU’s 6-3 loss to MSOE on Oct. 28.

• DOUBLE-DIGIT SCORERS: The 11 goals by Winter and 10 by Tushie marks the first time the Cardinals have had two players with 10 or more goals in the same season since Kyle Meeh and Tommy Stang finished with 13 and 11 goals, respectively, during the 2019-20 season.

• FIRST COLLEGIATE GOAL: SMU boasts seven players who have scored their first collegiate goals this season — Newpower, Jake Vaughn (Colorado Springs, Colo.), Connor Abric (Hayward, Wis.), Blake Arneson (Red Wing, Minn.), Clay Allen (Anchorage, Alaska), Cooper Smyl (Fairfield, Calif.), and Noah Kiemel. … Saint Mary’s had six players who scored their first goals in a Cardinal uniform a year ago.

• SPREADING THE WEALTH: Saint Mary’s eight goals against Lawrence on Nov. 21 came from seven different players — with Winter the only Cardinal with more than one tally — while SMU’s four goals in the rematch against the Vikings on Jan. 16, and its four goals against Bethel on Jan. 26-27, were scored by four different players. … SMU’s 12 points (4 G, 8 A) against Gustavus on Dec. 2 came from 11 different players — only Tushie (2 G) had more than one point.

• TOSSING THE HAT: Tushie recorded his first collegiate hat trick in the Cardinals’ 5-3 win over St. Olaf on Jan. 12. It’s the third hat trick in the last two seasons for the Cardinals, who got three-goal games from Sheberov and Brady Lindauer a year ago.

• MULTIPLE GOALS: With his two goals against Saint John’s on Feb. 1, Tushie has now recorded three multiple-goal games this season, having also netted three goals against St. Olaf on Jan. 12 and a pair of tallies against Gustavus on Dec. 1. … Winter boasts two multiple-goal games this season, scoring twice against Lawrence on Nov. 21 and twice vs. Northland on Jan. 5. … Newpower and Noah Kiemel have accounted for SMU’s other two multiple-goal games — Newpower found the back of the net twice against Northland on Jan. 5, while Kiemel scored twice against St. Olaf on Jan. 13.

• LENDING A HAND: SMU has three players — Tushie, Winter, Jack Campion (Crystal, Minn.) — who all share the team lead with eight assists each, one more than Laudon Poellinger (La Crescent, Minn.) and two up on Callahan Nauss (Maple Plain, Minn.). … Poellinger owns the team’s single-game season-high with three assists against Northland on Jan. 5.

• POINT PRODUCERS: With his 11 goals and eight assists, Winter sits atop the team’s points race with 19, while Tushie is second with 18, and Campion and Sheberov each own 10.  … SMU has gotten at least one point from 26 different players. … Tushie recorded a single-game season- and career-high four points with his three goals and an assist against St. Olaf on Jan. 12. … Winter (2 G, 1 A) and Poellinger (3 A) have recorded season-high three-point games this season.

• NETTING THE GAME-WINNER: Winter leads the team with two game-winning goals, with Tushie, Potyk, Poellinger, Tharaldson, Noah Kiemel, Nick Kiemel, and Callahan Nauss netting the Cardinals’ other five game-winners.

• BETWEEN THE PIPES: A.J. Ruskowski (Traverse City, Mich.) has made a team-leading 13 starts between the pipes, boasting a 3.36 GAA and .916 save %. … Ruskowski finished with 81 saves in SMU’s split against St. Scholastica on Feb. 9-10 — including a career-high 48-save effort in the Cardinals’ 4-2 win on Feb. 9 — and followed that up with back-to-back 45-save efforts in SMU’s sweep of Concordia last weekend. … Ruskowski, who owns 469 saves, has stopped 30 or more shots in all 13 starts this season. … Matt Sankner (Pennington, N.J.) has started 12 of SMU’s 25 games in goal, compiling a 3.48 goals-against-average and .892 save percentage. … Sankner locked up his second career shutout in SMU’s 2-0, conference-opening win over Hamline on Nov. 3, stopping all 24 shots he faced. … Sankner has amassed 348 saves in 12 starts — including a season-high 37-save effort against UW-Stevens Point on Nov. 10.

• SCORING FIRST: Saint Mary’s has scored first in 13 of its 25 games, going 10-2-1 when netting the game’s first goal. … SMU is now 24-7-1 when scoring first since the start of the 2021-22 season, while going 3-25-1 when their opponent nets the game’s first goal.

• WORKING OVERTIME: Saint Mary’s 2-1 win over Bethel on Jan. 26 was its third overtime game of the season, having also battled Gustavus (4-4) and the University of Dubuque (2-2) to draws.

• CRUNCHING THE NUMBERS: Forty-eight of Saint Mary’s 64 goals have come at even strength. … SMU has gone 16-for-100 with the man advantage through 25 games (16.0 %), and scored a season-high three power-play goals against Lawrence on Nov. 21. … SMU’s opponents, meanwhile, have netted 20 of their 91 goals on the power play, going 20-for-96 with the man advantage (20.8 %). … Saint Mary’s has been called for just one penalty in a game twice — vs. Lawrence on Nov. 21 and against Bethel on Jan. 26. … SMU has scored 17 times in the first period, 22 times in the second, and 24 in the third. Forty-two of the 91 goals allowed by the Cardinals have come in the second period. SMU has also surrendered 20 first-period goals and 29 in the game’s final stanza. … SMU’s eight goals against Lawrence on Nov. 21 were a season-high, and the most since beating St. Olaf 8-2 on Jan. 13, 2023. … The Cardinals posted a season-high 49 shots on goal against the University of Dubuque on Dec. 8. It was SMU’s highest shot total since peppering the Bethel net with 58 SOG on Feb. 18, 2022.

ST. OLAF SCOUTING REPORT:

• FOR THE RECORD: The Oles head into their MIAC Playoff opener against Saint Mary’s boasting an 11-11-3 overall record, while finishing fifth in the final conference standings with a 7-7-2 record.

• LAST TIME OUT: The Oles bounced back from a 4-0 loss to Gustavus last Friday with a 5-1 victory the following evening that locked up the No. 5 seed in this week’s MIAC Playoffs.

• PLAYOFF EXPERIENCE: St. Olaf is making its 15th appearance in the MIAC Playoffs and is in the field for the third season in a row. The Oles have advanced to at least the semifinal stage in each of the last two seasons, including winning the MIAC Playoff title in 2022 as the No. 7 seed (all teams made the tournament due to the COVID-19 pandemic). The 2022 title was the second in program history for St. Olaf, which also won the tournament in 2006.

• COMING IN HOT: The Oles head into post-season play having won three of their last four — outscoring those four opponents 17-7 — including 17-3 in the three wins. STO beat Saint John’s (3-1 and 7-1) and Gustavus (5-1), while falling to the Gustavus (4-0). 

• HOME SWEET HOME: St. Olaf has been dominant on its home ice this season, closing out the regular season with an 8-3-1 mark at the St. Olaf Ice Arena, while winning just three times on the road (3-8-2).

• LIGHTING THE LAMP: Jonathan Young enters the post-season as the Oles’ goal-scoring leader with nine, two more than Tory Bowditch, while Connor Kaithoff and Cody Sherman each own six goals, and Jonathan Panisa, Joey Kennelly, Tyler Cooper, and Parker Casey have each chipped in five. … STO has had nine different players score two goals in a game. Bowditch has done it twice, with Kennelly, Kalthoff, Sherman, Young, Panisa, Eric Brown, Brendan Darby, and Tony Leahy also delivering a two-goal game. 

• LENDING A HELPING HAND: The Oles boast four players who have reached double figures in assists through 24 games, led by Kaithoff with 13. Noah Heisler boasts 12 helpers, with Sherman and Panisa each chipping in 11. … Kaithoff picked up a single-game, season-high four assists against Northland on Jan. 6.

• POINT PRODUCERS: Fueled by his team-leading 13 assists, Kaithoff sits atop the team’s points race with 19. He is one of eight Oles with 10+ points, being joined by Sherman (17), Panisa (16), Heisler (13), Kennelly (13), Bowditch (13), Tyler Green (12), and Young (12). … Kaithoff’s four points against Northland on Jan. 6 were a season-high.

• WORKING OVERTIME: The Oles have played six overtime games this season — beating Hamline (3-2), losing to Bethel (2-1) and UW-Stevens Point (4-3), and tying Bethel (1-1), Middlebury (2-2), and St. Scholastica (3-3).

• BETWEEN THE PIPES: St. Olaf has had three different goalies see time between the pipes this season, with Lukas Haugen and Thomas Lalonde seeing the majority of the work. Haugen owns a team-best 1.96 goals-against-average and .925 save percentage in 11 starts (671:25 minutes), while Lalonde owns a 2.41 GAA and .906 save % in 12 starts (671:25) and Tyler Laureault (2.75 GAA, .905 save %, 130:50) has appeared in three games. … Haugen leads the team with 283 saves, followed closely by Lalonde with 261. … Haugen stopped a season-best 34 shots against Bethel on Nov. 3.

• CRUNCHING THE NUMBERS: St. Olaf has outscored its opponents 79-58 through 24 games, including 19-17 in the first period, 37-20 in the second, and 22-20 in the third. … The Oles also hold a commanding 725-660 edge in shots on goal. … St. Olaf is 19-for-88 on the power play (21.6 %), while its opponents are 17-for-90 (18.9 %). … The Oles’ 10 goals, 18 assists, 28 points, and 46 shots on goal against Northland on Jan. 6 were all season-highs. On the flip side, St. Olaf has allowed a season-high five goals twice — falling to Saint Mary’s 5-3 on Jan. 12 and dropping a 5-4 decision to Concordia on Jan. 23.