WINONA, Minn. — There's something about playing St. Olaf that seems to bring out the best in Saint Mary's University of Minnesota's Chad Cesarz (Jackson, Mich.)
 
Two years ago, in his first season with the Cardinal men's hockey team, Cesarz recorded his first collegiate hat trick in a 5-3 Saint Mary's win over St. Olaf.
 
A year later, Cesarz scored a goal and added an assist in a 4-4 tie between the two teams.
 
And Friday evening, the Cardinal junior was once again feasting on Ole goaltending, scoring a pair of goals to lead Saint Mary's to a 4-3 Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference victory at the Saint Mary's Ice Arena.
 
"I thought we played very well tonight," said Saint Mary's coach Bill Moore. "We had some great individual performances, and our penalty kill really stepped up when we needed it.
 
"We'll certainly take the three points, that's for sure."
 
It took 10 minutes into the opening period before either offense could get shifted out a neutral—but once they did, it was pedal to the metal.
 
After a scoreless opening 10 minutes, Cesarz kicked things off for the Cardinals, scoring his second of the season off assists from Andrew Cummings (Anchorage, Alaska) and Michael Amelio (Venetia, Pa.).
 
Less than two minutes later, it was 2-0 Cardinals, as Bob Kinne (St. Paul, Minn.) fed Alex DiBacco (Darien, Ill.), who feathered a picture-perfect pass to Taylor Portner (Andover, Minn.) on the back door, and the Saint Mary's senior tapped it past St. Olaf goalie Jude Hull for his third goal of the season.
 
 The Oles would get one back before the period ended, as Patrick Sivets beat Saint Mary's goalie Phil Heinle (York, Pa.) to whittle the Cardinal lead to 2-1 after the game's opening 20 minutes.
 
Cesarz found the back of the net for a second time at 14:03 of the second period, but St. Olaf quickly answered as Patrick Sivets snuck a loose puck past Heinle just three minutes later to make it a 3-2 Saint Mary's advantage with 20 minutes to play.
 
 Landon Farrell (Rochester, Minn.) picked the perfect time to collect his first goal of the season, beating Hull with a wrist shot to put the Cardinals up 4-2 with 12:06 remaining in regulation.
 
As has been the case all evening, however, the Oles once again had an answer, as Will Dittrich redirected a Jonas Fredriksson shot past Heinle just four minutes after Farrell's goal to cut the Saint Mary's lead to 4-3.
 
That would be as close as St. Olaf would get, as Saint Mary's recorded its fourth straight win—including a perfect 3-0-0 start to the conference season.
 
Heinle finished with 21 saves in goal for the Cardinals, while Hull stopped 27 of Saint Mary's 31 shots on goal.
 
The Cardinals and Oles head to the Northfield Ice Arena in Northfield, Minn., on Saturday for the second game of the teams' two-game MIAC series. Puck drops at 7:30 p.m.