JANESVILLE, Wis. — It was an all around win for the Saint Mary's men's hockey team (7-6-1) turned in a dominant performance on the road Saturday night, rolling past Beloit (2-12-1) with an 8-1 victory on the road. The Cardinals controlled the game from start to finish, cashing in on two power-play chances and riding a hat trick from Carter Newpower while outshooting the Buccaneers 43-40.

Newpower led the offensive charge with three goals on seven shots, recording his first hat trick of his career. In net, Logan Abric was steady all night, stopping 39 shots and allowing just one goal.

Saint Mary's set the tone early, winning the opening faceoff and applying immediate pressure. The breakthrough came at 15:25 of the first period when Newpower buried a shot off feeds from Joona Juntunen and Blake Arneson to give the Cardinals a 1-0 lead. 

Saint Mary's continued to push late in the period, earning a power play in the final seconds, but carried the one-goal advantage into the first intermission.

The Cardinals opened things up in the second period. Hicks converted on the power play at 11:51, finishing a setup from Juntunen and Cole Mickel. Newpower followed with an unassisted tally at 6:35, and Cooper Smyl capped the period's scoring efforts at 3:55 with an even-strength goal off assists from Tyler Lafferty, pushing the lead to 4-0.

Saint Mary's wasted little time extending its advantage in the third, as Newpower completed his hat trick just 40 seconds in, taking feeds from Arneson and Colin Tushie. Beloit got on the board later in the period, but the Cardinals never let up. 

Smyl struck again on the power play at 12:06, assisted by Reid Watson and Lafferty.

Hicks added his second goal of the night at 5:31 with help from Markus Andrews and Ben Polomsky, and Tyler Steuck put an exclamation point on the win at 1:08. Steuck's goal marked the first of his collegiate career and made it even more special as it came in his hometown of Janesville.

The Cardinals closed out the night with an emphatic 8-1 win.

They will carry the victory into their final nonconference matchup tomorrow, at UW-River Falls for a 7:05 p.m. puck drop.