WINONA, Minn. — For the second night in a row, the Saint Mary's University men's hockey team showed its resiliency by bouncing back from an early deficit against league-leading St. Thomas.

Unfortunately for the Cardinals, that comeback was for naught — again — as St. Thomas held on for a 4-3 Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference win last Saturday.

"I think the effort was there, but I don't think that effort translated into our best performance," admitted SMU coach Don Olson. "On Friday, we just made too many mental mistakes — and each time we made a mistake, they capitalized on it.

"On Saturday, we put ourselves in tough spots by taking some careless penalties," continued Olson, whose team gave up a pair of powerplay goals in Saturday's loss. "A lot of the things St. Thomas did — a lot of the goals they got — were a direct result of a mistake or poor decision on our part."

The Cardinals —  who rallied from a 4-2 third-period deficit Friday evening, only to give up a pair of late goals in UST's 6-4 win — found themselves in much the same predicament on Saturday.

Nick Harris gave UST a 1-0 lead seven minutes into the opening period, but SMU responded five minutes later as Jason Fillipp (Fox River Grove, Ill.) netted his ninth of the season. The Tommies regained their one-goal advantage before the period ended as Brandon Wilcox beat SMU goalie Ryne Ess (Eden Prairie, Minn.) with two minutes remaining.

St. Thomas pushed its lead to 3-1 as Dan Krmpotich netted the only goal of the second period at the 15:35 mark. Al Schumacher (Oakdale, Minn.) pulled the Cardinals within one with a shorthanded tally at 4:21 of the third period, only to have UST make it 4-2 32 seconds later on Anthony Blumer's powerplay goal.

Mike Bry (Manvel, N.D.) gave SMU hope, scoring his fourth of the season with 59 seconds left in regulation. That, however, would be as close as the Cardinals would get in falling to UST for the fifth straight time.

On Friday, it was more a case of bad timing than anything else.

SMU had what appeared to be a golden opportunity to pull even with St. Thomas late in the third period. The Cardinals, already 3-for-4 on the power play for the night, were given their fifth powerplay opportunity when UST's Kevin Rollwagen was whistled for a holding penalty with 4:19 remaining in regulation and the Tommies clinging to a 5-4 advantage.

Unfortunately for the Cardinals, instead of netting powerplay goal No. 4, SMU gave up its first shorthanded goal of the season as Dustin Lick broke in alone on SMU goalie Curtis Nosal (Omaha, Neb.) and beat the Cardinal sophomore high to the stick side to ice the Tommies' 6-4 win.

"It was like whatever could go wrong (down the stretch) did," said Olson, whose team had rallied from a two-goal second-period deficit to tie the game 4-4 midway through the third period, only to give up two unanswered goals. "Our powerplay was outstanding and then we make a mistake — a bad decision on a pass — and, boom, we've given up our first shorthanded goal of the season.

“I was pleased to see us bounce back the way we did in both games,” said Olson, whose team is looking to get back on track tonight, when they play host to Augsburg in a key MIAC series. “It’s tough to have to keep battling from behind like we did (against St. Thomas). We need to come out against Augsburg and play at a very high level from start to finish.

“Every game from here on out is going to be a challenge – hopefully we’re up to that challenge.”