WINONA, Minn. — It wasn't necessarily the 5-1 season-opening loss to St. Norbert that worried Saint Mary's University men's hockey coach Don Olson — it was how the Cardinals would respond to that loss when they took the ice again last Saturday against Lake Forest.

For nearly two-and-a-half periods, the Cardinals' response wasn't too favorable, as Lake Forest scored five of the game's first seven goals and led 5-2 with just over six minutes remaining in regulation.

In that final 6:12, however, SMU turned things around, scoring three times — including Eric Thom's (Portland, Ore.) second of the game with 24 seconds left — to salvage a 5-5 nonconference tie.

"We did not play particularly well in the first two periods, but we really stepped it up in the third," said Olson, whose team was outshot 30-24 through two periods, then made good on three of their 10 third-period shots. "The guys showed a lot of character battling back like they did.

"If there's such a thing as a good tie, I guess you could call this a good tie."

Chad Damerow (Albert Lea, Minn.) opened the scoring, putting SMU on the board just 21 seconds into the first period. Lake Forest's Andrew Francone tied the game 1-1 with his first of the season at 8:17 as the teams went into the locker room after one period tied at 1-1.

SMU regained the lead on Thom's first of the game early in the second period, but the Foresters responded with three goals in an eight-minute span to take a 4-2 advantage after two periods. Cory Wilson pushed that lead to 5-2 at 7:56 of the third period, and the Foresters maintained that three-goal advantage until the 13:48 mark — when the Cardinals' offense finally came to life.

Nick Meeker (Rochester, Minn.) got things rolling with his first of the season, with Lenny Hofmann (Sartell, Minn.) cutting the Lake Forest lead to 5-4 with 1:17 left, setting up Thom's game-tying heroics less than a minute later.

"Lake Forest is a very good team," said Olson, noting that the Foresters had already defeated NCHA power UW-Superior, as well as defending MIAC champion St. Thomas, this season. "I wasn't overly pleased with our play — we had far too many lapses. But I was encouraged by the way we came back, that was good to see."

What wasn't good to see, however, was SMU staring at huge third-period deficits — on back-to-back nights.

St. Norbert also jumped out to a commanding five-goal lead vs. the Cardinals, scoring Friday's first five goals before Al Schumacher (Oakdale, Minn.) finally got SMU on the board with just under five minutes remaining in the third period.

"You can't keep having to come from behind like that — especially against the caliber of teams we will face all year," said Olson, whose team returns to action tonight, hosting UW-Stout in the Cardinals’ home opener. "It's early in the year, and some of those mistakes are to be expected — but we've got to clean things up a bit."