BLAINE, Minn. — Saint Mary's University of Minnesota men's hockey coach Bill Moore could not have written a better script for the Cardinals' first two games of the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference season.
 
Well, he may have changed the final margin of victories a bit—but other than that, there wasn't much more the Cardinal head coach could have asked for.
 
Two games, six goals scored—and, most importantly, six conference points.
 
Saint Mary's completed its conference-opening sweep of Bethel Saturday evening, getting three goals—from three different players—in the second period en route to a 4-2 win over the Royals at the Schwan's Super Rink.
 
After a scoreless first period, the Cardinals and Royals turned up the offensive heat over the game's middle 20 minutes—combining for five goals.
 
Fortunately for Moore, three of those second-period tallies came off the sticks of Cardinals.
 
Martin Gruse (Trenton, Mich.) got things rolling for the Cardinals, as the Cardinal senior—and the team's scoring leader each of the last two seasons—netted his first goal of the season 2:18 into the second period.
 
Less than three minutes later, it was 2-0 Cardinals, as Gruse set up Jay Heinle (York, Pa.) for his third goal of the season.
 
The two-goal advantage did not last long, however, as Dallas Marvin cut the deficit to 2-1, beating Cardinal goalie Phil Heinle (York, Pa.) just three minutes after Jay Heinle's tally.
 
Saint Mary's regained its two-goal lead—thanks to Andrew Cummings' (Anchorage, Alaska) first collegiate goal—only to have Bethel answer on an Andrew Bjorklund tally before the second period ended, giving the Cardinals a 3-2 edge heading into the game's final 20 minutes.
 
Taylor Portner (Andover, Minn.) gave the Cardinals a little breathing room midway through the third period, scoring his second goal of the season off an assist from Bob Kinne (St. Paul, Minn.) to push the Saint Mary's lead to 4-2.
 
And with Phil Heinle between the pipes, two goals was more than enough, as the Cardinal senior stopped all nine third-period shots—and 37 shots overall—to secure Saint Mary's third straight victory.
 
The Cardinals (2-0-0 MIAC, 3-1-2 Overall) are back in conference play next weekend with a two-game series against St. Olaf. Saint Mary's entertains the Oles in a 7 p.m. match at the Saint Mary's Ice Arena on Friday, before heading to the Northfield (Minn.) Ice Arena on Saturday for the 7:30 p.m. rematch.