ST. PETER, Minn. – The St. Olaf College men's hockey team held third-period leads of 2-0 and 3-1 before eventually falling, 5-4, in overtime to Gustavus Adolphus College in a non-conference contest on Tuesday evening at Don Roberts Ice Rink.

St. Olaf (6-8-3) led 2-0 after two periods and 3-1 midway through the third period before Gustavus (4-8-2) scored three times in the span of 30 seconds to take a 4-3 lead. The Oles got a power-play goal from first year Jonathan Young with just over five minutes to go to force overtime, but Mason Etter gave the Gusties the win by scoring 46 seconds into overtime.

The game was the first of two non-conference games between the two Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) foes. The teams were scheduled to play a conference series earlier this month, but both games were postponed due to COVID-19 cases in both programs. Per MIAC protocol, the games were rescheduled as non-conference contests.

The teams appeared to be headed for a scoreless opening 20 minutes before reigning MIAC Men's Hockey Athlete of the Week Sean Walsh scored on a rebound on the power play at 19:13 of the opening period to give the Oles a 1-0 lead after one. Sophomore Sam Mudd scored his first collegiate goal at 10:02 of the second period to extend St. Olaf's lead to 2-0 after 40 minutes.

Sophomore Lukas Haugen made a pair of saves to deny Gustavus breakaways in the period, thwarting Brandon McNamara in the opening minute of the period and Nick Klishko with a minute and a half to go in the period.

Gustavus got the first goal of a wild six-goal third period at the 5:37 mark from Tyler Ebner before first year Eric Brown netted his third goal of the season – all in the last four games – two minutes later to push St. Olaf's lead back to two goals. The Gusties got goals from Nick Klishko, Connor Clemons, and Kyle Heffron in the span of just 30 seconds to take their first lead of the game at 4-3 with 7:13 remaining.

Trailing by a goal all of a sudden, the Oles tie the game at 4-4 with their second power-play goal of the game at 14:40 of the third on a one-timer by Young off feeds from junior Evan Shoemaker and first year Tyler Cooper. Bowditch's assist was his team-leading ninth of the season and his sixth in the last six games, while Cooper picked up his team-leading 18th point of the season.

The teams went to overtime locked at 4-4 before Etter won it for Gustavus on a 3-on-1 rush in the opening minute of the 3-on-3 overtime. The Gusties held a 28-15 advantage in shots on the game but were 0-for-4 on the power play, while the Oles were 2-for-4 on the man advantage to give them nine power-play goals in their last nine games.

Haugen made 23 saves in the loss for St. Olaf, while Jackson Hjelle picked up the win with an 11-save evening.

The Oles return to MIAC play against Bethel on Saturday, Jan. 22 at 7 p.m. at the National Sports Center in Blaine.