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Friday, January 16, 2004 |
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(Through Thursday, January 15) |
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The Cardinals swept their two- game series vs. Bethel (4-1 and 5-4) last weekend, extending SMU’s win streak to five. … St. Thomas swept its series against Hamline last week- end, shutting out the Pipers 9-0 and 5-0. UST has now won four of its last five. |
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St. Thomas outsocred SMU 11-1 in sweeping the series vs. the Cardinals a year ago, winning 6-1 and 5-0. … SMU’s last win vs. UST was a 6-2 decision on Jan. 18, 2002. |
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Lenny Hofmann (Sartell, Minn.) and Al Schumacher (Oakdale, Minn.) each scored two goals vs. the Royals, while Hofmann added two assists for a team-leading four points. … Chad Damerow (Albert Lea, Minn.), Jason Fillipp (Fox River Grove, Ill.), Sam Phillips (Red Wing, Minn.), Nick Meeker (Rochester, Minn.) and Ryan Spencer (Winona, Minn.) accounted for SMU's other goals vs. the Royals. … Ryne Ess (Eden Prairie, Minn.) stopped 62 of the 67 shots he faced (.925 save %) and lowered his season goals-against-average to 2.74. … SMU has now won a season-high five straight games. … Hofmann leads the team in goals (10) and points (20), and shares the team lead in assists (10) wiht Damerow and Marcus Reszka (Winona, Minn.). … SMU has outshot its opponents 483-370, and has outscored them in all three periods (17-11 in the first, 17-16 in the second and 18-14 in the third). |
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WINONA, Minn. — There was nothing easy about the Saint Mary's University men's hockey team's 5-4 Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference win over Bethel Saturday night.
In fact, there was nothing easy about the entire weekend series vs. the Royals.
And Cardinal coaches Terry Mannor and Don Olson wouldn't have it any other way.
"That was great college hockey," said Mannor. "It was a battle the whole weekend, both teams were working hard, creating good scoring chances, playing tough defense … it's what college hockey is all about."
Olson agreed.
"You've got to give Bethel a lot of credit," he said. "They never stopped working. Everytime we got them down by two goals (on Saturday), they just seemed to work that much harder to get back in it. We made some mistakes that gave (Bethel) some good scoring opportunities, but that's college hockey.
"From a fan's standpoint, it was an exciting weekend."
From a coach's standpoint, maybe a little too exciting.
"It was a good weekend," understated Olson, whose team opened the two-game series with a 4-1 win at Bethel Friday night — getting goals from four different players and a pair of assists from Mike Bry (Manvel, N.D.). "Every game from here on out is going to be a battle just like that. Hopefully, we learned a little about what it takes to win the close games and we can carry that over into this weekend (against St. Thomas)."
The Tommies enter tonight’s game as one of the hottest teams in the MIAC, having won four of their last five games — including back-to-back shutout wins over Hamline last weekend. In fact, the Tommies’ lone loss since opening the season 0-4 was a 4-2 setback to top-ranked Amherst on Jan. 3. Since ending that season-opening four-game losing streak with a 4-1 win over 2001-2002 national champion UW-Superior on Nov. 22, UST is 6-1-2 in its last nine games.
“Playing St. Thomas is always exciting. They have been one of the top teams in the conference for several years, and we have a pretty good rivalry against them, so this weekend promises to be a real challenge,” said Olson, whose team is just two points back of the league-leading Tommies after two full weeks of conference play. “Sure, it’s a big series. But it’s not any bigger than (last weekend’s Bethel) series, or any bigger than next weekend’s (series) against Augsburg.
“We can’t get ourselves too worked up, just becuase we’re playing St. Thomas,” Olson continued. “It’s just another series — another battle we have to be ready for. Nothing more, nothing less.”