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Cardinal Roster
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Cardinal Statistics
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Cardinal Schedule
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MIAC Standings
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MIAC Statistics
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| 2006-07 Records: 4-9-1 MIAC, 7-15-1 Overall |
| Last Week's Results: Bethel 3, Saint Mary's 2 / Details Bethel 4, Saint Mary's 1 / Details |
| Upcoming Games: Fri., Feb. 23: St. Thomas at Saint Mary's, 7:05 Sat., Feb. : Saint Mary's at St. Thomas, 7:05 |
| Cardinal News and Notes: With Friday's loss, SMU was eliminated from the MIAC playoff picture. … After winning a season-high three straight in late January, SMU has now dropped four in a row. … Last Friday's 3-2 loss to the Royals was SMU's third straight one-goal loss. It was also the Cardinals' fifth one-goal loss of the season. … Karl Reinke (Duluth, Minn.) and Adam Fleishman (Vernon Hills, Ill.) netted the Cardinals' two goals in Friday's loss, while Jesse Polk's (Hastings, Minn.) third-period tally accounted for SMU's lone goal in Saturday's rematch. … Bethel scored single goals in all three periods — in both games vs. the Cardinals. … Adam Gill (Rochester, Minn.) currently leads the team in goals (12) and is second in points with 21, four behind team-leader Anthony Bohn (Spring Hill, Fla.) . … Bohn also leads the team in assists (17), and he and Gill are two of seven SMU players with at least 10 points this season. … The Cardinals have scored more than two goals just four times in their 15 losses this season. … With Saturday's loss to the Royals, the Cardinals are now 3-12-0 when their opponent scores first. … Five of SMU's seven wins have come at home — the Cardinals are 2-9-0 away from the SMU Ice Arena. … The Cardainls have scored just 23 goals in their 11 road games, while netting nearly twice that many (44) on their home ice. … Friday's game vs. St. Thomas will be the final hiome game for SMU seniors Fleishman, Cullum Buetow Staples (Arden Hills, Minn.), Andy Nadeau (Winona, Minn.) and Nick Berra (St. Louis, Mo.). |
3 goals twice in losses to conference-leading Bethel
WINONA, Minn. —
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Karl Reinke
1 G, 1 A vs. Royals Friday |
After battling the Royals for 60 minutes, however, SMU's playoff hopes took their final breath, as Bethel got three goals from Kent Bostrom — the third with less than four minutes remaining in regulation to break a 2-2 tie and send the Royals to a 3-2 victory at the SMU Ice Arena.
And if there's one thing the Cardinals learned about league-leading Bethel during their two-game MIAC series, it's that, not only are the Royals good, but they're consistent, too.
Fresh off that 3-2 victory over the Cardinals, in which they scored single goals in all three periods, the Royals posted a repeat performance in Saturday's rematch, scoring three times — once in the first, once in the second and once in the third — en route to a 3-1 victory over SMU at the Schwan's Super Rink.
"We knew coming in that our (playoff) chances were pretty slim, but in this league, you can never say never," said SMU coach Don Olson, whose team needed to win its remaining four games — and have Augsburg lose at least two — in order to be among the final five MIAC teams playing after next weekend. "And the guys went out and played as well as they can play. Bethel is a very good team and we stayed right with them the entire way.
"It's disappointing to lose, especially close games like that, but I can't ask any more of this team, they played their hearts out."
Staying true to form, the Royals got their first goal Saturday late in the first period, as Ryan Adams beat SMU goalie Dan Smith (Rochester, Minn.) with 2:17 remaining. Bethel's first-period goal on Friday came with 1:03 left on the clock.
The Royals needed six more minutes than they did Friday to get their second-period goal, as Matt Hall netted a short-handed tally at 12:30 to give Bethel a 2-0 advantage heading into the final 20 minutes.
Jesse Polk (Hastings, Minn.) pulled the Cardinals to within one, 2-1, with a powerplay goal midway through the period, but Rory Dynan iced it for Bethel with an unassisted goal at 14:29 — two minutes earlier than Kent Bostrom's game-winner in Friday's 3-2 win.
"The most frustrating part is, we've played well enough to win any of the last five games we've played, and instead, we lost all five," said Olson, whose team goes from facing the conference's top team in Bethel, to squaring off against the MIAC's No. 2 team, St. Thomas, in their final two-game series of the season. "We just can't seem to get over the hump right now. We're playing right with teams, we're just not able to find a way to get the win."