NORTHFIELD, Minn. – The St. Olaf College men's hockey team gained a split of its series against the College of St. Scholastica to open Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) play by picking up a 5-1 victory on Saturday evening at St. Olaf Ice Arena.

Junior Ashton Altmann led the way for St. Olaf (2-3-1, 1-1-0 MIAC) with a goal and two assists, while first year Troy Bowditch added a goal and an assist. A night after seeing St. Scholastica (4-2-0, 1-1-0 MIAC) score the game's final four goals in a 5-2 win, the Oles scored the first three goals of the game and never looked back.

In addition to the goals from Altmann and Bowditch, first year Sean Walsh, senior Mitch Dolter, and first year Ethan Hersant added goals for St. Olaf, which also got a 34-save effort between the pipes from first year Thomas Lalonde.

Hersant gave the Oles an early lead just over four minutes into the game, scoring from near the left face-off dot after getting the puck from Altmann. Walsh doubled St. Olaf's lead to 2-0 at the first intermission by marking his third-straight game with a goal off of assists from Bowditch and Altmann at 16:22.

The teams combined for three second-period goals as the Oles extended their lead to 4-1 after two periods. Dolter tipped in a shot by first year Connor Kalthoff at 12:22 to extend St. Olaf's lead to 3-0, but the Saints got that goal back less than three minutes later on a power-play tally by Arkhip Ledenkov. Bowditch got the final goal of the period with less than 30 seconds to go, toe-dragging the puck past a St. Scholastica defender before firing the puck home.

Altmann recorded the lone goal of the third period on the power play at 15:32 to close out the scoring. Lalonde had 15 saves in the opening period, nine in the second, and 10 more in the third to pick up his second collegiate victory. Jack Bostedt made 28 saves in the loss for the Saints.

St. Olaf continues MIAC play by hosting Concordia-Moorhead on Friday and Saturday, Nov. 19-20. Puck drop for the series opener is at 7 p.m.