ST. CLOUD, Minn. — It took a little longer than he had hoped—1:54 longer, to be exact—but the end result certainly suited Saint Mary's University of Minnesota men's hockey coach Bill Moore just fine.
 
The Cardinals' Kelvin Walz (Woodbury, Minn.) scored 1:54 into overtime, lifting Saint Mary's to a 3-2 win over Saint John's—and into the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Playoffs.
 
"Our guys really battled tonight," said Moore, whose team punched their ticket to the MIAC post-season tournament for the second time in the last three years with the victory. "They could have easily hung their heads after Saint John's scored late in the third period, but they didn't—they just kept going hard.
 
"And they were rewarded for that hard work."
 
The Johnnies struck first, getting a goal from Sam Valerius at 12:09 of the first period, giving SJU a 1-0 lead—a lead they would cling to through the remainder of the first period and the first seven minutes of the second.
 
And that's when the Cardinals went to work.
 
Jay Heinle (York, Pa.) pulled the Cardinals even with his 10th of the season—assisted by Martin Gruse (Trenton, Mich.) and Bob Kinne (St. Paul, Minn.) at 7:08 of the middle period, and, four minutes later, Andrew Cummings (Anchorage, Alaska) put Saint Mary's in front, 2-1, taking a feed from Chad Cesarz (Jackson, Mich.) and beating SJU goalie Andrew Lindgren.
 
The Cardinals and Johnnies both had plenty of chances over the final nine minutes of the second period, but both Lindgren and Saint Mary's Phil Heinle (York, Pa.) were up to the task, giving Saint Mary's the one-goal edge heading into the game's final 20 minutes of regulation.
 
It appeared like the Cardinals were on their way to a 2-1 win in regulation when SJU's Huba Sekesi scored with just 2:02 remaining to send the game into overtime—and set up Walz's game-winning, and playoff clinching goal.
 
Heinle was busy between the pipes for the Cardinals, finishing with a season-high 44 saves, while Lindgren stopped 29 of the 32 Saint Mary's shots he faced.
 
The Cardinals (9-5-1 MIAC, 13-8-3 overall) and Johnnies (5-6-2 MIAC, 10-9-3 overall) close out their two-game conference series on Saturday with a 7 p.m. MIAC rematch at the Municipal Athletic Complex in St. Cloud, Minn.