EAU CLAIRE, Wis. - Talk about a daunting two-week stretch.
As if playing two of the top teams in the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference last weekend at the MIAC Hockey Showcase wasn't tough enough, the Saint Mary's University of Minnesota men's hockey team's next two opponents were ranked in the top 10 in the latest USCHO.com Poll.
Beginning Friday against UW-Eau Claire.
And Saint Mary's was up to the challenge.
The Cardinals'
Bob Kinne (St. Paul, Minn.) scored with less than three minutes remaining in regulation, earning Saint Mary's a 3-3 overtime tie with the eighth-ranked Blugolds.
"That was a really good hockey game," said Saint Mary's coach
Bill Moore. "I thought both teams played very well.
"We had a big penalty at end of third and into overtime, and that hasn't been out strength this season-but the guys really came through when the chips were on the line," Moore added. "It would have been nice to come out of here with a win, but I thought we put together a pretty complete game, and we'll take a 3-3 tie against the eighth-ranked team in the country."
The first period belonged to the Cardinals as
Jared Johnson (Hartland, Wis.) and
Jay Heinle (York, Pa.) found the back of the net to give Saint Mary's a 2-0 advantage.
Johnson took a feed from
Kellen Wasell (Edmonds, Wash.) and beat UW-Eau Claire goalie Tyler Green for his second goal of the season at 13:34.
Heinle then gave the Cardinals a 2-0 advantage-on the power play-with 19 seconds remaining. Wasell and
Taylor Portner (Andover, Minn.) collected the assists on Heinle's second goal of the season.
The second period-and half of the third-however, belonged to the Blugolds, as UW-Eau Claire rattled off three unanswered goals, including a power-play goal by Adam Knochenmus to give UW-EC a 3-2 advantage midway through the game's final period.
The lead would not last long, as Kinne evened things up at 3-3 with his first goal of season with less than three minutes remaining in regulation.
Phil Heinle (York, Pa.) recorded 29 saves in goal for the Cardinals, while Green stopped 38 of Saint Mary's game-high 41 shots.
The Cardinals (1-2-0 overall) are right back in action-and right back on the road-on Saturday, heading to River Falls, Wis., for a 7:05 nonconference game against 10th-ranked UW-River Falls.
