Men's Hockey 12/2/05 -- Augsburg 7, St. Mary's 2

BOXSCORE

WINONA, Minn. (12/2/05) -- With the game's first goal, four minutes into the opening period, the St. Mary's University men's hockey team put an end to a season-long streak.

After giving up the first goal in their first seven contests, Adam Gill's (So., Rochester, Minn.) wrist shot over the blocker of Augsburg College's Tony Ciro (Sr., Spring Lake Park, Minn./Hill-Murray HS) gave the Cardinals their first first-period lead of the season.

Unfortunately, the Cardinals may have scored early, but it was the Auggies who scored often, as Augsburg erupted for seven goals -- including four in the game's final 20 minutes -- in handing SMU its third straight Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference men's hockey setback, 7-2 on Friday night at the SMU Ice Arena.

Augsburg is now 5-3-1 overall, 2-0-1 in MIAC play, while St. Mary's is now 1-6-1 overall, 0-3-0 in MIAC play. The teams will finish the series on Saturday (12/3) at 7 p.m. at the Augsburg Ice Arena.

The Cardinals' first-period lead lasted just nine minutes, as the Auggies' Brett Way (Fr., Grand Ledge, Mich.) tied the game with the first of two Augsburg power-play goals. Aaron Johnson * (Jr., Plymouth, Minn./Robbinsdale Armstrong HS) added his third of the season less than four minutes later as the Auggies took a 2-1 lead -- a lead they would never relinquish -- into the locker room after the first period.

Critter Nagurski * (Jr., International Falls, Minn.) netted the lone goal of the second period to but Augsburg up 3-1, before the Auggies' Patrick Fogerty (Fr., Forest Lake, Minn.) and SMU's David Gross (So., Grasston, Minn./Pine City HS) traded goals in the first 11 minutes of the third period to make it a 4-2 game.

That, however, was as close as the Cardinals would get as Augsburg rattled off three goals in the final seven minutes -- including two 43 seconds apart -- to ice the win. Nagurski added his second goal of the game at the 12:34 mark, Joe Haehn (Sr., Minneapolis, Minn./Washburn HS) scored at the 17:14 mark and Colby Nichol (Fr., Grande Prairie, Alberta/Grande Prairie Composite HS) scored at the 17:57 mark.

Johnson had two assists for the Auggies, as did Danny Carlson (So., Roseville, Minn.). Way and Nichol added assists to their scoring totals for the Auggies, while Tom Doyle (Jr., St. Paul, Minn./Como Park HS), Danny Clements (So., Grande Prairie, Alberta/Grande Prairie Composite HS), Dan Leopold (So., Afton, Minn./Stillwater HS), Kellen Chamblee (Fr., Falcon Heights, Minn./Roseville HS) and Kyle Thompson (Fr., Surrey, B.C./Enver Creek HS) also had assists.

Graham Murphy (Jr., Webster Groves, Mo.) and Andy Roberts (Fr., Rochester, Minn.) had assists for St. Mary's.

Ciro ended up with 23 saves to score the win, while Curtis Nosal (Sr., Omaha, Neb.) had 37 saves for St. Mary's. Augsburg outshot St. Mary's by a 44-25 margin.