WINONA, Minn. — Eight minutes into the first period of last Saturday afternoon's Minneesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference rematch with St. John's, it appeared that the Saint Mary's University men's hockey team was well on its way to a victory — and a much-needed split in their conference series.

After all, the Cardinals got back-to-back goals from Al Schumacher (Oakdale, Minn.) and Chad Damerow (Albert Lea, Minn.) less than two minutes apart to give the Cardinals a 2-0 advantage.

Ten minutes into the second period, the Cardinals still maintained a two-goal cushion — albeit 3-1 — and those key two conference points were well within their grasp.

Then the roof caved in.

St. John's scored three unanswered goals, including Joel Starke's game-winner with less than five minutes remaining in regulation, as the Johnnies handed SMU a 4-3 setback at the SMU Ice Arena.

"(St. John's) scored those two goals in the second period, and all of the sudden, we starting panicking a bit," said SMU coach Don Olson. "We started thinking about losing and (SJU) went from having it taken to them, to being right back in the game.

"Letting other teams back in games and getting down on ourselves have been things we've been struggling with all season," continued Olson, whose team managed just one goal — a second-period tally by Damerow — in Friday's series-opening 4-1 loss. "We just don't have the confidence in ourselves that you need to have to beat teams like (St. John's).

"Until we start believing in ourselves — really realizing that we have the skills and the talent to beat any team we face — it's going to be a bit of a struggle for us."

After Schumacher and Damerow got SMU off and running, SJU's Kevin Willey cut the lead to 2-1 with a powerplay goal — the first of three man-advantage goals for the Johnnies, who also scored a powerplay goal, and a shorthanded goal, in Friday's 4-1 SJU win.

SMU regained its two-goal edge when Marcus Reszka (Winona, Minn.) beat SJU goalie Adam Hanna from in close at 10:52 of the second period.

But that would be the extent of SMU's offensive output — and the start of the Johnnies'.

Darryl Smoleroff and Andy Johnson scored goals 59 seconds apart late in the second period to tie the game at 3-3 heading into the final 20 minutes. SJU pelted the Cardinal net with 14 third-period shots, finally breaking getting one past SMU goalie Curtis Nosal (Omaha, Neb.), when Starke banged home a rebound off a shot by Chad Schmidt at 15:29.

The two losses, the second time in three weeks SMU has been swept by a conference leader, leave SMU at 5-5 in the MIAC with three weeks left to play. With 10 points, SMU is currently sitting in fourth place, three points back of this weekend's opponent, Gustavus, and one point ahead of both Augsburg and St. Olaf.

"We're not about to start panicking — there's still a lot of hockey to be played," said Olson. "Am I disappointed (with the two losses to SJU)? Sure. I don't think we competed as hard as we could have — especially Friday night. But that's behind us, we have to focus on what's in front of us — and that's this weekend's games against Gustavus."