WINONA, Minn. — For two periods, the Saint Mary's University men's hockey team went toe-to-toe with the defending NCAA Division III national champs.

For one period, however, UW-Superior's one-two punch was too much for the Cardinals to handle, as the Yellowjackets scored five unanswered goals to rally from a 3-1 deficit and KO the Cardinals 6-3 Saturday evening.

"We played extremely well for about a period and a half," said SMU coach Don Olson. "Problem is, against a team as talented as Superior, a period and a half isn't enough."

Al Schumacher (Oakdale, Minn.) put the Cardinals on the board first, netting his team-leading eighth goal of the season six minutes into the opening period. The Yellowjackets bounced right back, getting the equalizer three minutes later on a goal by Brent Halverson as the two teams battled to a 1-1 tie after one period.

Schumacher and Jason Fillipp (Fox River Grove, Ill.) scored 27 seconds apart early in the second period to give the Cardinals a short-lived 3-1 advantage. Kyle Nosan scored a shorthanded goal at the 5:41 mark and Halverson tallied his second of the game with less than five minutes remaining in the period as UW-Superior tied the game 3-3 heading into the final period.

The Yellowjackets put the game away in the third period, scoring three times within a nine-minute span to snap SMU's two-game winning streak and their perfect 3-0 mark against nonconference opponents.

"We came in feeling pretty confident — especially after playing so well on Friday," said Olson, whose team got scoring from seven different players en route to a 7-3 win over St. Scholastica on Friday. "And it showed in the way we played. Obviously, we would have liked a different outcome, but we did some very good things out there."

And as good as the Cardinals were Saturday night, they were even better the night before.

The Cardinals erupted for five first-period goals en route to the 7-3 win over St. Scholastica.

"We came out right from the opening faceoff and just dominated play," Olson said. "It was one of those games where we started out strong and just never let up."

The Cardinals outshot the Saints 19-8 in the opening 20 minutes, getting four unanswered goals from Schumacher, Ryan Holland (Winona, Minn.), B.J. Gaustad (Portland, Ore.) and Fillipp before the game was 14 minutes old. Colin Emans (Hutchinson, Minn.) also scored in SMU's first-period onslaught as the Cardinals took a commanding 5-1 advantage into the lockerroom at the first intermission.

The Cardinals' Eric Thom (Portland, Ore.) netted the lone goal of the second period, while Sam Phillips' (Red Wing, Minn.) tally six minutes into the third period pushed SMU's advantage to 7-1.

"We were a much faster team than (St. Scholastica), and we definitely used that speed to our advantage," said Olson. "We scored a number of goals that were the culmination of some great passing.

"We worked hard and played at a very, very high level all weekend," Olson continued. "I think we showed (against Superior) that we are capable of playing against the best teams in the country — hopefully, we can keep that momentum rolling."

* THIS AND THAT: Al Schumacher (Oakdale, Minn.) scored three goals last weekend, pushing his team-leading total to nine. … Jason Fillipp (Fox River Grove, Ill.) netted two goals over the weekend and is second on the team in goals scored with seven. … Chad Damerow (Albert Lea, Minn.) collected five assists in SMU's games vs. St. Scholastica and UW-Superior and currently leads the team in assists with 11. … All 11 of Damerow's team-leading 11 points have been assists, while all nine of Schumacher's points have been goals. … Schumacher and Fillipp have each scored at least one goal in five of SMU's six games — including each of the last four for Schumacher — while Damerow has at least one assist in five of the Cardinals' six games. … Curtis Nosal (Omaha, Neb.) pushed his unbeaten streak to 2-0-0 with a 29-save effort vs. Scholastica. … Nosal has stopped 54 of the 58 shots he's faced and leads the team with a 2.00 goals-against-average. … SMU is averaging 5.5 goals and 6.8 assists per game. … 13 of SMU's 21 goals against have been either on the powerplay or shorthanded.