Men's Hockey 1/15/05 -- St. Mary's 6, Augsburg 4 

BOXSCORE

WINONA, Minn. (1/15/05) -- This time around, the St. Mary's University men's hockey team wasn't about to let history repeat itself.

Friday evening, the Cardinals scored once in the first period and three times in the second to take a 4-3 lead into the final 20 minutes, only to have Augsburg College score with 32 seconds remaining in regulation to pull out a 4-4 tie.

In the teams' rematch Saturday night at the SMU Ice Arena, the Cardinals once again scored once in the first and three times in the second -- and once again held a 4-3 advantage heading into the game's final period.

That, however, is where the similarities stop, as SMU got third-period goals from David Gross (Fr., Grasston, Minn./Pine City HS) and John Paul (So., St. Paul, Minn./Cretin-Derham Hall HS) before the third peirod was even four minutes old, en route to a 6-4 Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference win.

Chad Damerow (Sr., Albert Lea, Minn.) got SMU on the board first at the 6:29 mark of the first period as SMU -- for the second night in a row -- held a 1-0 lead after one period.

Augsburg responded with back-to-back goals from Greg May (So., Burnsville, Minn.) and Steve Collova (Sr., White Bear Lake, Minn.) to take a 2-1 lead early in the second, but three straight from the Cardinals -- one by Damerow, one by Ryan Spencer (Sr., Winona, Minn.) and one from Paul -- put SMU back on top 4-2. Danny Carlson (Fr., Roseville, Minn.), however, would pull the Auggies back to within one, 4-3, before the second period ended, leaving SMU coach Don Olson with a feeling of deja vu.

Fortunately for Olson, Gross and Paul gave the Cardinals some breathing room as SMU ran its unbeaten streak to three straight.

Ryne Ess (Sr., Eden Prairie, Minn.), who stopped 41 shots in Friday's overtime tie, wasn't as busy Saturday, as the senior stopped 15 of the 19 shots he faced. Tony Ciro (Jr., Spring Lake Park, Minn./Hill-Murray HS) had 21 saves in the losing effort for Augsburg.

Augsburg is now 6-6-3 overall and 3-2-1 in MIAC play, while St. Mary's is now 6-8-1 overall, 2-3-1 in MIAC play. Augsburg faces St. Olaf in a two-game MIAC series next weekend, with Friday's (1/21) game at 7 p.m. at St. Olaf in Northfield and Saturday's (1/22) game at 7 p.m. at the Augsburg Ice Arena. The Cardinals have a two-game series at St. John's, with games Saturday and Sunday (1/23), both at 2 p.m., at the National Hockey Center in St. Cloud.