WINONA, Minn. — Don Olson would love to forget the first 20 minutes of Saturday's game against Finlandia.

But the Saint Mary's University men's hockey head coach would love to patent the second and third periods.

The Cardinals spotted Finlandia a three-goal first period advantage, then stormed back with six unanswered goals en route to a 6-3 victory Saturday afternoon at the SMU Ice Arena.

"We can out a little sluggish in the first period, and I think part of that may have been due to the success we had the night before," said Olson, whose team opened its season with a 9-3 drubbing of the Lions Friday evening. "No matter how hard you try to avoid that type of letdown, I'm sure the players felt like (Saturday's game) was going to more of the same as the night before.

"Actually, I thought we played fairly well the first five or six minutes, but then we made some careless mistakes and (Finlandia) took advantage."

Three mistakes, to be exact.

The Lions took advantage of a slashing penalty by the Cardinals' Colin Emans (Hutchinson, Minn.), netting the game's first goal on the powerplay at 6:52. Two minutes later, Ted Sturos intercepted an SMU pass in center ice and scored a shorthanded goal, beating Cardinals goalie Ryne Ess (Eden Prairie, Minn.) on a breakaway. Bob Engus made it 3-0 six minutes later as he rifled a slap shot from just inside the blue line that beat Ess to the glove side.

"Obviously, I wasn't happy (to be down 3-0 after the first period), but I wasn't going to panic, either," said Olson, whose team — despite being outscored 3-0 — outshot the Lions 14-11 in the first period. "My hope was that our veteran leaders would step up and set the right tone for the second and third periods — and I think they did that."

Did they ever.

Sam Phillips (Red Wing, Minn.) got the Cardinals on the board five minutes into the second period, and Jason Fillipp (Fox River Grove, Ill.) followed with two of his three goals four minutes apart to pulled SMU even at 3-3. Lenny Hofmann (Sartell, Minn.) gave SMU the lead for good with less than two minutes remaining in the second period. Fillipp completed his hat trick at the 3:14 mark of the third period and Eric Thom (Portland, Ore.) netted his first of the season late in the third to complete the scoring.

The Cardinals peppered Paoli with 46 shots over the game's final two periods, while Finlandia managed just eight shots in the final 40 minutes.

"I think this was a good weekend for us," said Olson, whose team opens conference play next Friday at St. Olaf. "It exposed some of our weaknesses and showed us what our are strengths are. We did a lot of good things out there, but we've got a long ways to go if we are going to compete with the top teams in the league."