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APPLETON, Wis. — Special teams were extra-special Tuesday evening, as the Saint Mary's University and Lawrence men's hockey teams combined for six power-play goals in their nonconference game at the Appleton Family Ice Center.

Unfortunately for the Cardinals, it was the Vikings who accounted for four of those six goals with the man advantage.

The Vikings scored a pair of power-play goals in the game's opening 20 minutes — and added another in the third period — as Lawrence put an end to the Cardinals' season-high three-game winning streak with a 5-2 victory at the Appleton Family Ice Center.

"I thought we played a pretty solid game — we just couldn't get into a really good flow with all the penalties," said SMU coach Bill Moore. "Give (Lawrence) credit, their power play was very good tonight."

Lawrence, coming off the biggest victory in program history — a come-from-behind 5-4 win over second-ranked St. Norbert last Saturday — wasted little time getting its offense on track against SMU, as the Vikings' Ryan Rumbel banged a rebound past Cardinal goalie Phil Heinle (York, Pa.) four minutes into the opening period.

The Vikings would add their second power-play tally in as many first-period opportunities nine minutes later, as Renato Engler rifled a shot past a screened Heinle to put Lawrence up 2-0.

SMU took a page out of the Vikings' playbook in the second period, as the Cardinals — after killing off a pair of Lawrence man-advantage opportunities — netted a power-play goal of their own on a Bob Marx (Sioux City, Iowa) slap shot that beat LU goalie Anton Olsson with 4:16 left to cut the deficit to 2-1.

The Cardinals swarmed the Lawrence net early in the third period, but it was the Vikings who scored the period's first goal. After Olsson stonewalled SMU on a golden scoring opportunity, the Vikings took the puck the length of the ice and Ryan Eardley's wrist shot beat Heinle to the glove side to give LU a 3-1 advantage with 16 minutes remaining in regulation.

The two-goal lead didn't last long, however, as Bobby Thompson (Centerville, Minn.) netted the Cardinals' second power-play goal of the season — off assists from Brad Denney (Fishers, Ind.) and Austin Balko (Midland, Mich.) — at 10:10 to make it a 3-2 game.

That, however, would be as close as SMU would get, as Lawrence scored back-to-back power-play goals — the first by William Thoren and the second by Logan Lemirande — in a 61-second span late in the third to seal the win.

Heinle finished with 24 saves for the Cardinals, while Olsson recorded 28 stops — including 10 in the third period — in goal for Lawrence

The Cardinals (5-6-0 overall) are now off until Jan. 10-11, when they will host Concordia (Wis.) and Milwaukee School of Engineering in their final two nonconference games of the season at the SMU Ice Arena.