ST. PAUL, Minn. — Saint Mary's University of Minnesota men's hockey coach Bill Moore doesn't want to sound like a broken record, but … he can't help but sound like a broken record.
 
Saint Mary's held Hamline to just one goal in Friday's 3-1 win over the Pipers at the Saint Mary's Ice Arena—pushing the Cardinals' record to 8-0-0 when limiting their opponent to less than three goals.
 
In the team's rematch Saturday evening, the Pipers scored four times in the second period alone in cruising to a 7-2 Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference victory over the Cardinals at Oscar Johnson Arena.
 
"I said it last night, and I'll say it again—you aren't going to win a lot of hockey games when you are giving up five, six, seven goals," said Moore, whose team is now just 2-7-2 when its opponent scores at least three goals. "When we are good defensively—and hold our opponents to less than three goals—we are unstoppable.
 
"But when we don't, we struggle—and we definitely struggled tonight."
 
The Pipers scored early, and the Cardinals scored late to make it 1-1 after the game's opening 20 minutes.
 
Hamline got on the board at 1:31 of the opening frame on a goal by Cody Bentzel, while the Cardinals waited until the final minute of the stanza, as Nick Albergo (Elmhurst, Ill.) scored for the second straight game with 56 seconds remaining to pull the Cardinals even, 1-1.
 
The Pipers went to work early again in the second period—very early—taking a 2-1 lead on Mitch McPherson's power-play goal just 48 seconds in. Saint Mary's answered three minutes later on Albergo's second goal of the game, but Hamline went back on top, 3-2, on a goal by Mitch Hall at 9:09.
 
And the Pipers weren't finished.
 
Jesse Kessler scored his fifth of the season—just 1:01 after Hall's goal—to push the Hamline advantage to two, 4-2, and McPherson closed out HU's four-goal second period with his second of the night at 17:57.
 
Hamline's offense continued to display its Midas Touch in the third period, as Brandon Wahlin and Drake Hunter would score less than two minutes apart midway to round out the scoring.
 
The Cardinals (6-4-0 MIAC, 11-7-2 overall) square off against Augsburg in a pair of conference games next weekend. Saint Mary's heads to the Auggies' Ed Saugestad Rink in Minneapolis, Minn., for a 7 p.m. matchup on Friday, before returning home to face the Auggies in the 7 p.m. rematch at the Saint Mary's Ice Arena.