EAU CLAIRE, Wis. – The St. Olaf College men's hockey team mounted a late rally but came up one goal short in a 3-2 loss at third-ranked UW-Eau Claire on Saturday evening at Hobbs Ice Center.
 
No. 3 UW-Eau Claire (15-2-2) led 3-0 late in the third period before junior Tuukka Totro scored a pair of goals 1:37 apart for St. Olaf (3-10-1) inside the final six minutes. After Totro's second goal got the Oles within one with 4:22 left, St. Olaf got a power play and pulled its goalie with 1:29 left but could not complete the comeback.
 
Totro's pair of goals gave him three on the weekend after he scored the night before at UW-River Falls. The three goals tie him with Kyle Rimbach and Brandon Desrosiers for the team lead in the category and marked the junior's first-career two-goal performance.
 
UW-Eau Claire peppered junior Noah Parker with 23 shots on goal in the first period, but Parker kept the Blugolds off the board until an unassisted goal by Jon Richards at 17:18.
 
Leading just 1-0 after one, the hosts stretched their lead to 3-0 after two periods thanks to goals from Logan Von Ruden at 2:01 and Andrew McGlynn at 15:37. Richards earned an assist on McGlynn's tally in addition to his first-period goal.
 
The Blugolds maintained their three-goal advantage until Totro got the Oles on the board at 14:01 of the third period of an assist from Rimbach. Just 1:09 after the goal, UW-Eau Claire took a penalty and Totro cashed in 28 seconds into the man advantage to make it a 3-2 game, with Luke Ranallo and Andrew Willner picking up assists.
 
With its deficit trimmed to one, St. Olaf got a late opportunity on the power play when McGlynn committed a tripping penalty with 1:29 left and pulled Parker to create a two-man advantage, but the UW-Eau Claire defense held on to see out the victory.
 
Since starting the season with three power-play goals in its first 10 games, St. Olaf has scored one in each of the last four games. Willner's assist was his second of the weekend, while Ranallo's was his third in the last four games.
 
Parker finished with 45 saves for the evening, his fifth game with at least 40 saves and the second-highest total of the junior's career. Zach Dyment made six saves over the first two periods for the Blugolds before David Johnson surrendered two goals in the third.
 
The Oles return to conference play next weekend with a series against Hamline University, beginning on Friday, Jan. 18 at 7 p.m. at TRIA Rink in St. Paul.