WINONA, Minn. — The Saint Mary's University men's hockey team entered its Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference quarterfinal against St. Olaf riding a two-game winning streak.
 
It was the Cardinals' second two-game win streak of the season.
 
The Cardinals had yet to win three games in a row all season — and what a better time than with a victory in the opening round of the post-season.
 
St. Olaf, however, refused to let that happen.
 
The Oles scored a single goal in both the first and added two more in the third — and got a 23-save shutout from Thomas Lalonde — in dealing SMU a season-ending 2-0 setback Wednesday evening at the Saint Mary's Ice Arena.
 
With the win, St. Olaf advances to Saturday's MIAC Playoff semifinals, where the Oles will square off against top-seeded Augsburg at 7 p.m., while the Cardinals close out the year with a 10-14-2 overall record.
 
St. Olaf would net the only goal of the first period, as Cody Sherman took a feed from Tracey Bowditch in the SMU zone, skated across the top of the circles, and whistled a shot over the glove of SMU goalie A.J. Ruskowski (Traverse City, Mich.) to give the Oles the 1-0 lead after 20 minutes of play.
 
Neither team would find the back of the net — thanks in large part to the play of Ruskowski at one end, and the Ole penalty killers at the other.
 
Ruskowski, the two-time reigning MIAC Defensive Player of the Week, stopped all 15 shots the Oles sent his way in the middle frame — including a sprawling save on what appeared to be a sure-goal by St. Olaf's Sean Walsh with 6:35 remaining — while St. Olaf killed off all three SMU second-period power-play chances to maintain its 1-0 advantage.
 
The Oles didn't need much time coming out of the second intermission to grab a little breathing room, scoring 22 seconds into the third period on a goal by Jonathan Young — leaving the Cardinals faced with an uphill climb, and not much time to work with.
 
Saint Mary's had a golden opportunity to cut into the St. Olaf lead when Eric Brown was whistled for high sticking with 4:50 to play, but the Cardinals' special teams came up empty for a fifth time — and the Oles would tack on an empty-net goal with 31 seconds remaining in regulation to seal the win.
 
Ruskowski — making his 11th straight start between the pipes for SMU — finished with 37 saves in goal for the Cardinals, including 12 in the final period. It marked the 13th time in as many starts that the junior stopped 30 or more shots in a game.
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