WINONA, Minn. — The Saint Mary’s University men’s hockey team outshot Bethel 14-11 in the final 20 minutes of the third period of Saturday’s Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference game against Bethel at the SMU Ice Arena.
Unfortunately for the Cardinals and head coach Bill Moore, that was the good news.
The Royals erupted for nine goals — scoring four times in the third, three times in the second and twice in the third — en route to a 9-1 conference win over the Cardinals.
“It was just one of those nights where everything went wrong,” said Moore, whose team had dropped a 5-4 decision to the Royals in Friday’s first game of the two-game series. “We started out poorly, taking way too many penalties in the first period, and things just snowballed from there.
”The Royals took advantage of six power play opportunities in the game’s opening 20 minutes, scoring three of their four first-period goals with the man advantage.
And it didn’t get any better from there, as Bethel peppered SMU goalie
Greg Moore (Woodbury, Minn.) with 14 second-period shots — scoring three times, including two more on the power play — to take a commanding 7-0 lead into the locker room after two periods of play.
SMU’s
Kevin Wentland (Columbia Heights, Minn.) put an end to Bethel goalie Aaron Damjanovich’s bid for a shutout, scoring his fourth goal of the season 42 seconds into the third period. The Royals, however, responded with two more goals of their own before the period ended to round out the scoring.
Moore finished with 28 saves for the Cardinals, while Damjanovich stopped 29 of the 30 SMU shots he faced.
The Cardinals, who fall to 1-7-0 in the MIAC and 1-15-1 overall, are back in action on Friday, hosting St. Thomas in the first game of their two-game conference series at 7 p.m. at the SMU Ice Arena.