SAINT PETER, Minn. – The Gustavus Adolphus College men's hockey team battled the Saint Mary's University Cardinals at home Friday night in a conference contest. The Gusties defeated the Cardinals 5-4 in overtime for their seventh win in a row, improving to 9-5-1 overall and 5-2 in the MIAC.
Saint Mary's jumped out to an early 1-0 lead, scoring in the opening two minutes of the game. The Cardinals followed with another goal nine minutes in to go up 2-0.
In the second period,
Nate Stone cut Saint Mary's lead in half with his fifth goal of the season in the 13
th minute, assisted by
Jayar Luedke.
Just four minutes later,
Christian Miller scored the equalizer for the Gusties with his first goal of the season, assisted by
Jack Wineman and
Hunter Newhouse, to tie the game at 2-2.
Not even two minutes after that game-tying goal,
Wilmer Svensson capitalized on a power-play opportunity to score his team-leading ninth goal of the season, assisted by
Grant Ellings and
Drew Holt, to give Gustavus a 3-2 lead in the closing minutes of the second period.
Six minutes into the third period, Saint Mary's scored to even the game up at 3-3. Three minutes later,
Owen Hendrikson retook the lead for the Gusties up 4-3 with his second goal of the season, assisted by
Nick Blood and Luedke.
The Cardinals tied the game once more with just four and a half minutes remaining in regulation, evening the score at 4-4. Neither team scored for the remainder of the period, sending the game to overtime.
Just one minute into the overtime period, Svensson scored the game-winner, assisted by
Ludvig Mellgren, for his 10
th goal of the season to power the Gusties to the 5-4 victory.
Marko Belak earned the win in net for Gustavus, saving 31 shots on goal.
Up next for Gustavus is game two of the weekend series against the Cardinals on the road in Winona on Saturday, January 10 at 7:00 p.m.
