Men's Hockey 1/24/04 -- St. Mary's 5, Augsburg 0 

BOXSCORE

MINNEAPOLIS (1/24/04) -- Al Schumacher (Sr., Oakdale, Minn.) scored two goals in the first period, leading the St. Mary's University men's hockey team to a 5-0 shutout win over Augsburg College in a Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference game on Saturday night at the Augsburg Ice Arena, completing the Cardinals' first series sweep of Augsburg since the 1995-96 season.

In improving to 10-6-1 overall and 5-3-0 in MIAC play, the Cardinals outscored Augsburg 8-2 on the weekend. St. Mary's dominated Saturday's game at Augsburg from start to finish, outshooting the Auggies by a 39-19 margin.

Augsburg drops to 5-9-2 overall and 3-4-1 in MIAC play.

The Cardinals set the tone for the game right away, outshooting Augsburg 20-5 in the first period, popping three goals in the first 14 minutes past Augsburg goalie Erik Young (Jr., White Bear Lake, Minn.). Justin Brigl (Sr., Apple Valley, Minn.) notched his first goal of the season at the 3:34 mark, firing a shoulder-high shot that glanced off Young's glove into the net.

Schumacher followed at the 8:34 mark with his first goal, stealing an errant pass and walking in for the unassisted goal. His second goal came on shorthanded feed from Marcus Reszka (So., Winona, Minn./Rochester Lourdes HS) at the 14:16 mark.

Augsburg attempted to get back into the game in the second frame, but a Cardinal goal from Mark Zoller (Sr., Rochester, Minn./Century HS) with 27 seconds left in the period took the wind out of the Auggie sails. A goal from Jason Fillipp (Sr., Fox River Grove, Ill.) at the 5:51 mark of the third period capped the scoring for the visitors.

Lenny Hofmann (Sr., Sartell, Minn.) had two assists for the Cardinals.

The game was marred by a fight early in the third period that resulted in 40 minutes of penalties and two game disqualifications, one to Augsburg's Tony Beaulieu (Fr., Shoreview, Minn./Mounds View HS) and the other to St. Mary's goalie Ryne Ess (Jr., Eden Prairie, Minn.). Ess had made 18 saves to that point; Curtis Nosal (So., Omaha, Neb.) finished the game for the Cardinals, making one save.

Young made 34 saves in a losing effort for Augsburg.

The teams return to MIAC play with series next weekend, with Augsburg facing St. Olaf and St. Mary's facing St. John's. Augsburg will play at St. Olaf on Friday (1/30) at 7:05 p.m. and host St. Olaf on Saturday (1/31) at 7:05 p.m. at the Augsburg Ice Arena. St. Mary's hosts St. Olaf on Friday at 7:05 p.m. at the SMU Ice Arena, and plays at St. Mary's on Saturday at 2 p.m. at the National Hockey Center in St. Cloud, Minn.