WINONA, Minn. – The Gustavus Adolphus College men's hockey team battled the Saint Mary's University Cardinals on the road Saturday night in a conference contest. The Gusties completed the weekend sweep of the Cardinals with a 5-3 victory to win their eighth in a row and improve to 10-5-1 overall and 6-2 in the MIAC.
Riku Brown put the Gusties on the board in the 13
th minute of the first period, scoring his first goal of the season with
Nate Stone assisting to put Gustavus up 1-0.
Grant Ellings doubled the Gusties' lead in the final two minutes of the opening frame, scoring his fourth goal of the season with
Drew Holt and
Jack Anderson earning assists.
Following a scoreless second period,
Emil Samuelsson scored a power-play goal six minutes into the third with assists from
Ludvig Mellgren and Anderson to put Gustavus up 3-0. The goal was Samuelsson's fifth of the season.
Less than a minute later, however, Saint Mary's capitalized on a power-play opportunity of their own to score and cut the Gusties' lead back down to two, trailing 3-1. The Cardinals scored again with 7:17 remaining on the clock to pull within one of Gustavus, down 3-2.
Hunter Newhouse regained a two-goal lead for the Gusties with a short-handed goal, his third of the season and assisted by Anderson, to put them up 4-2 with just 4:50 remaining in the game.
Saint Mary's once again answered, scoring a power-play goal to cut Gustavus' lead back down to just one at 4-3 with 3:02 to go.
The Cardinals pulled their goalie in the final minute to try and tie the game, but
Nick Blood got his stick on the puck and sent it down the ice into the empty net to score his third goal of the season with just 33 seconds remaining, securing the win for the Gusties.
Marko Belak saved 12 shots on goal in the win for Gustavus.
Up next for the Gusties is a non-conference road game at the University of Wisconsin-Stout on Friday, January 16 at 7:00 p.m. in Menomonie, Wisconsin.
