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Saturday, December 7, 2002 |
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(Through Friday, December 6) |
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The Cardinals won their fourth straight, getting scoring from five different players in a 5-1 win over Northland last Tuesday. … River Falls, meanwhile, had its season-opening unbeaten streak snapped at 11 (10-0-1) with a 5-2 loss to St. Thomas on Friday. |
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River Falls held the Cardinals to just 19 shots on goal as the Falcons cruised to a 4-0 nonconference win. |
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Al Schumacher (Oakdale, Minn.) scored his team-leading 13th goal of the season in SMU’s win over Northland. … Schumacher has now scored a goal in eight of SMU’s 10 games. … Chad Damerow (Albert Lea, Minn.) leads the team in assists with 13. … Schumacher leads the nation in goals scored, while Damerow is second in assists. … Half (26) of the Cardinals’ 52 goals have come in the third period. … SMU’s current four-game winning streak is its longest since the Cardinals won five straight to start the season a year ago. … Josh Schlipp’s 14 points lead seven UW-River Falls players with at least 10 points. … Prior to Friday’s loss, the lone blemish on the Falcons’ record was a 0-0 tie with defending national champion UW-Superior. |
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Junior / Defense Hometown Major |
WINONA, Minn. — Al Schumacher (Oakdale, Minn.) has been doing his part in helping the Saint Mary’s University men’s hockey team to an impressive 8-2-0 start.
After all, the junior captain has scored 13 goals in the Cardinals’ first 10 games.
Yet, even with the nation’s top Division III scorer, SMU’s quick start hasn’t been a one-man show. Sure, Schumacher is getting his points — but so are a lot of other players.
Case in point, last Tuesday’s nonconference game against Northland.
Schumacher netted his team- and nation-leading 13th goal four minutes into the second period, but four other Cardinals also tallied goals as SMU pushed its winning streak to four straight with a 5-1 victory.
“We’re getting some very balanced scoring, and that’s nice to see,” said SMU coach Don Olson. “Everybody’s contributing, and everybody’s doing their part to help us succeed. We haven’t had to rely on one or two people to carry the load, and that’s been a real positive for us.”
Despite outshooting the Lumberjacks 16-4 in the first period, the Cardinals found themselves in a 0-0 deadlock after the game’s opening 20 minutes.
So Schumacher took matters into his own hands, scoring lucky No. 13 off a feed from Justin Brigl (Apple Valley, Minn.) less than five minutes into the second period.
And once Schumacher got the ball rolling, Eric Thom (Portland, Ore.) and Jason Fillipp (Fox River Grove, Ill.) kept it rolling as the two scored less than three minutes apart midway through the period to give SMU a 3-0 advantage heading into the final period.
“We had a lot of very good scoring opportunities — a lot of good 2-on-1s, good passing combinations — but we also got stymied a bit by a very hot goalie,” said Olson, whose team finished with 50 shots on goal — including third-period tallies from Lenny Hofmann (Sartell, Minn.) and Chris Wickersham (St. Louis Park, Minn.). “It’s kind of a good news, bad news situation — the good news is, we’re getting a lot of offensive chances, the bad news is, we’re not finishing as well as we should be.
“All-in-all, it was a good win for us,” continued Olson, whose team entertains UW-River Falls — currently ranked No. 2 in the latest USCHO national poll — in a nonconference game tonight. “Hopefully this will be a positive stepping stone as we get ready for UW-River Falls.”