MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. — The Saint Mary's University of Minnesota men's hockey team found itself playing catch-up through the first 40 minutes of its Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference game against league-leading Augsburg Friday evening.
 
• Down 2-0 early, the Cardinals netted back-to-back goals to head into the locker room tied 2-2 after the first period.
 
• Down 3-2 six minutes into the second period, the Cardinals once again "caught up," scoring six minutes later to once again head into the locker room tied—this time 3-3 after two.
 
Unfortunately, the Cardinals fell behind again in the third, but were not able to net the equalizer, as the 11^th-ranked Auggies handed Saint Mary's a 4-3 setback at Ed Saugestad Rink.
 
"That was a great college hockey game—probably one of the best MIAC games I've been associated with in my time here," said Saint Mary's coach Bill Moore. "Both teams played very well—it was a fast-paced, up-and-down-the-ice battle from start to finish.
 
"I was proud of the way our guys battled, we just weren't able to come up with that (game-tying) goal when we needed it down the stretch."
 
The Auggies had the upper hand early in the first period, getting goals from Paul Soubry and Erick Brenk in the game's first eight minutes, but the Cardinals owned the second half of the stanza, pulling even on goals by Kelvin Walz (Woodbury, Minn.) and Taylor Portner (Andover, Minn.) in a four-minute span to make it 2-2 after one.
 
The two teams traded second-period goals—the Cardinals' coming off the stick of Martin Gruse (Trenton, Mich.), who netted his sixth of the season at 12:15 to pull Saint Mary's even with the Auggies 3-3 with 20 minutes left to play.
 
Eric Brenk, who scored the Auggies' second goal of the first period, netted his second of the game 4:30 into the third period to give Augsburg the 4-3 advantage—and try as they might, the Cardinals could not get the equalizer over the final 15:30.
 
Aaron Davis (Mound, Minn.) finished with 28 saves in goal for the Cardinals—including 12 in the second period and 10 more in the third—while Jordyn Kaufer kicked out 26 Saint Mary's shots in goal for the Auggies.
 
The Cardinals (6-4-0 MIAC, 10-7-2 overall) and Auggies square off again Saturday in the second game of the teams' two-game MIAC series, heading to the Saint Mary's Ice Arena for a 7 p.m. matchup.