WINONA, Minn. — With just four games remaining in the regular season, the Saint Mary's University men's hockey team found itself in the thick of the MIAC Playoff hunt.
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Sitting in sixth place, one point back of fifth-place Concordia and seven back of third-place St. Scholastica — this week's conference foe — the Cardinals' hopes of a post-season invitation had very little room for error.
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And thanks to the play of goalie A.J. Ruskowski (Traverse City, Mich.) and three, third-period goals — including the game-winner by
Laudon Poellinger (La Crescnet, Minn.) with 1:47 to play in regulation — the Cardinals left the Saint Mary's Ice Arena with just a little more of that wiggle room.
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Ruskowski kicked out 48 shots in spearheading the Cardinals' 4-2, come-from-behind victory over St. Scholastica — keeping Saint Mary's within striking distance of one of the five coveted MIAC Playoff invitations.
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After two periods, however, it appeared as if the Cardinals' post-season chances were nothing more than a pipe dream.
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St. Scholastica would take the early lead on a goal by Hunter Hanson, who whistled a shot under the blocker of SMU goalie Ruskowski just four minutes into the opening period — and the Saints made that one-goal advantage stand up, taking their 1-0 lead into the locker room after 20 minutes of play.
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The Saints extended that lead to 2-0 on a goal by Brodie Girod midway through the second period, before the Cardinals' offense finally came to life, as
Gabe Potyk (Orion, Mich.) took a feed from
Nikita Sheberov (Obninsk, Russia) and rifled a shot past CSS goalie Eino Rissanen with 3:11 to play in the middle frame to get SMU within one, 2-1.
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And then came the third period — and the Cardinal offense kicked into high gear.
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The Cardinals nearly knotted the game at 2-2 three minutes into the third period, but
Jack Campion's (Crystal, Minn.) wrister on a semi-breakaway was gloved by Rissanen to maintain the Saints' 2-1 lead.
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Campion may not have been able to get the Cardinals even, but
Noah Kiemel (Colorado Springs, Colo.) could, as the junior unleashed a laser that Rissanen had no chance of stopping to make it a 2-2 game with 5:03 remaining in regulation.
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Less than four minutes later, the Cardinals were playing with the lead for the first time — thanks to Poellinger's first goal of the season, and, 40 seconds later,
Brendan Westbrook (Pine City, Minn.) tacked on an empty-net goal left to seal the Saint Mary's victory.
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Ruskowski was stellar between the pipes — especially in the second period, when the junior kicked out 29 of the Saints' 30 shots on goal — en route to his career-high 48-save effort, while Rissanen finished with 24 saves in goal for the Saint
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With the win, Saint Mary's remains in sixth place with 19 points, one back of St. Olaf, two behind fourth-place Saint John's, and four back of St. Scholastica with nine possible points remaining in the regular season
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The Cardinals (6-6-1 MIAC, 8-12-2 overall) and Saints will return to the Saint Mary's Ice Arena on Saturday for the second game of their MIAC series. Opening face-off is slated for 2:05 p.m.
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