WINONA, Minn. — The Saint Mary's University men's hockey team knew it was going to have its hands full when the Cardinals took the ice against Lawrence for a rare mid-week nonconference showdown.
 
After all, the Vikings entered Wednesday's match-up having scored nine goals in their season-opening nonconference split against Gustavus last weekend.
 
And, unfortunately for the Cardinals, the Vikings' high-octane offense remained running in high gear, as Lawrence erupted for three first-period goals and never looked back in dealing Saint Mary's a 5-1 setback at the Saint Mary's Ice Arena.
 
The Cardinals owned a 15-11 advantage in shots on goal through the game's opening 20 minutes, but thanks to a pair of goals from Zach Olen and another off the stick of Cory Checco, it was Lawrence that headed into the first intermission with a commanding 3-0 advantage.
 
Lawrence would pad its lead to 4-0 — scoring the only goal of the second period with just over one minute to play — before the Cardinals finally found the back of the net at 14:02 of the third, when Matt Hutton (Carmel, Ind.) took a feed from Trevor Wilhelm (St. Louis, Mo.) and beat Lawrence goalie Brian Tallieu to cut the deficit to 4-1.
 
The Vikings would answer — and quickly — as Olen completed his hat trick jless than two minutes after Hutton's tally to round out the scoring.
 
The Cardinals (0-3-0 overall) are back in action this weekend, when they host UW-Superior (Friday) and UW-Eau Claire (Saturday) in a pair of nonconference games at the Saint Mary's Ice Arena. Both games are slated for a 7 p.m. start.