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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
After two periods, however, it appeared as if the Cardinals' post-season chances were nothing more than a pipe dream.
 
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.
 
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.
 
And then came the third period — and the Cardinal offense kicked into high gear.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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
 
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
 
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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