STEVENS POINT, Wis. — The road certainly has not gotten any easier for the Saint Mary's University of Minnesota men's hockey team.
 
Just a week after earning a well-deserved split against league-leading St. Thomas—a team that was ranked No. 15 in the nation and had not lost a conference game prior to falling to Saint Mary's 2-1 last Saturday—the Cardinals were back on the ice, squaring off against UW-Stevens Point.
 
The nation's third-ranked team—and the defending national champions.
 
And the Cardinals showed the defending national champs about as much love as they did the Tommies last Saturday, getting two goals from both Chad Cesarz (Jackson, Mich.) and Martin Gruse (Trenton, Mich.) in dealing the Pointers a 4-2 nonconference setback at K.B. Willett Arena.
 
"Great team effort all the way around," said Saint Mary's coach Bill Moore. "I thought we played extremely well in the second period—probably one of our best periods all season—and we survived a bit of a shaky stretch in the third to get the win.
 
"To beat the third-ranked team in the country—the defending national champions—that's a great accomplishment, and a just reward for the effort the guys put forth."
 
Cesarz gave the Cardinals an early boost, scoring a power-play goal, his seventh goal of the season—off assists from Kyle Meeh and Jared Johnson (Hartland, Wis.)—just 1:31 into the opening period.
 
The Pointers answered with a power-play goal of their own six minutes later, as Logan Fredricks beat Cardinal goalie Phil Heinle (York, Pa.) for his first of the season.
 
Saint Mary's reaped the benefits of another power-play early in the second period, as Gruse took a feed from Kelvin Walz (Woodbury, Minn.) and beat UW-Stevens Point goalie Max Milosek for a 2-1 Saint Mary's lead.
 
That one-goal advantage quickly doubled, as Cesarz netted his second of the game—just 1:23 after Gruse's tally—with Taylor Portner (Andover, Minn.) and Ben Owen (Allen, Texas) picking up the assists.
 
And thanks to those two early second-period goals, the Cardinals maintained that two-goal, 3-1 cushion heading into the game's final 20 minutes.
 
The Pointers whittled the Cardinal lead back down to one, 3-2, on a goal by Jacob Barber at 8:04 of the third, but that's the last time UW-Stevens Point would get a puck past Heinle, who finished with 38 saves—including 20 in the third period alone.
 
Gruse gave the Cardinals some breathing room with his second of the night, an unassisted, empty netter, with 39 seconds remaining as Saint Mary's recorded its second straight win, and ninth of the season.
 
The Cardinals (9-5-2 overall) close out the nonconference portion of their schedule on Saturday, heading to Dunn County Ice Arena in Menomonie, Wis., for a 7:30 p.m. matchup against UW-Stout.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
The Cardinals (8-5-2 overall) close out the nonconference portion of their schedule on Saturday, heading to Dunn County Ice Arena in Menomonie, Wis., for a 7:30 p.m. matchup against UW-Stout.