THE MATCHUP

Saint Mary's vs. Augsburg vs. Saturday, Jan. 15, 2005 SMU Ice Arena 7:05 p.m.

GAMEDAY PLAYER PROFILE

Bill Flynn Year Senior Position Forward Hometown St. Louis, Mo.

For the official GameDay Program for today's game pdf / click here (pdf)

WINONA, Minn. — The Saint Mary’s University men’s hockey team didn’t lose its Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference game against Augsburg Friday night — but it sure felt like it.

The Auggies’ Steve Belde scored the game-tying goal with 32 seconds remaining in regulation as Augsburg rallied from a 3-0 second-period deficit to salvage a 4-4 tie against the Cardinals.

“It’s a tough tie in that we were so close to winning in regulation,” said SMU coach Don Olson, whose team moved to 1-3-1 in the MIAC and 5-8-1 overall with its first overtime game since a 3-3 tie at Gustavus on Feb. 6, 2004. “We had a chance to clear the puck (before Belde’s game-tying goal), but we couldn’t get it out of our zone. (Belde) got the puck and fired a shot on net that Ryne (Ess) never even saw.

“Obviously a win would have been a just reward for the effort,” Olson continued. “But we’ll take the point.”

SMU scored the game's only goal of the first period as Graham Murphy (St. Louis, Mo.) netted his third of the season.

The two teams combined for six second-period goals, with Adam Fingerhut (Oak Brook, Ill.), Adam Gill (Rochester, Minn.) and David Gross (Grasston, Minn.) accounted for the Cardinals' three tallies, as SMU took a 4-3 advantage into the final 20 minutes.

The Auggies peppered Ess in the final period, finally getting the game-tying tally on their 18th and final shot of the period.

“The game was a hard-fought, intense contest,” said Olson, whose team hopes to come out of the weekend with three of the possible four conference points as they host Augsburg in the second game of the two-game series tonight. “Both teams had their fair share of chances — Augsburg got the last of those chances and took advantage of it.”