MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. – The St. Olaf College men's hockey team was less than a minute away from knocking off No. 2-ranked Augsburg University, but the Auggies scored in the final minute of regulation and went on to pick up a 6-5 overtime victory in the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) series opener between the two teams on Friday night at Ed Saugestad Rink.

St. Olaf (7-2-1, 3-2-0 MIAC) held leads of 3-1, 4-3, and 5-4 in the game before Augsburg (6-1-1, 3-0-0 MIAC) netted an extra-attacker goal with 34 seconds remaining in the third period to send the game to overtime. In the extra session, Jarod Blackowiak finished off his hat trick at the 2:25 mark to win the game for the Auggies seconds after the Oles were inches away from a winning goal of their own.

Prior to Austin Dollimer's extra-attacker goal, St. Olaf was 34 seconds away from its first win over a top-two team since a 3-2 win over then-No. 2-ranked UW-Stevens Point on Nov. 8, 2014. The game was the Oles' eighth against a team ranked in the top two nationally since the start of the 2006-07 season. Despite the loss, St. Olaf's 7-2-1 start is its best 10-game start to a season since opening the 2008-09 season with an identical 7-2-1 record.

Augsburg took its only lead of the game prior to Blackowiak's game-winner at the 9:05 mark of the first period on a power-play goal by DanieL Chladek, which was the first of the Auggies' three power-play goals in the game. St. Olaf responded with goals from sophomore Tyler Cooper and first year Jonathan Panisa just 1:25 apart past the midway point of the period to take a 2-1 lead after 20 minutes. Cooper's goal was his team-leading seventh of the season, while Panisa netted his fourth goal in seven games.

Sophomore Ben Luscko scored unassisted at the 6:57 mark of the second period – his second goal of the season – to stretch St. Olaf's lead to 3-1, which was the lone two-goal lead of the contest. In the middle of the period, Blackowiak got his first goal of the night on a delayed penalty while the Auggies were shorthanded and, 1:27 later, Erik Palmqvist scored on the eventual Augsburg power play to knot the score at 3-3.

Junior Brendan Darby capped the four-goal second period with his first goal of the season at the 16:00 mark to send the Oles into the locker room up by a goal for the second period in a row. Blackowiak got his second goal of the night – another power-play goal – at 7:11 of the third period to tie the game at 4-4, but sophomore Connor Kalthoff restored St. Olaf's lead just 2:41 later with a wrist shot from between the two circles that flew in under the crossbar.

The Oles maintained their 5-4 lead until Dollimer re-directed a Logan Kons shot for an extra-attacker goal at 19:26 of the third period, which came 46 seconds after Augsburg pulled goaltender Samuel Vyletelka in search of a game-tying goal. In the overtime, sophomore Thomas Lalonde made a pair of saves for St. Olaf before junior Noah Heisler fired the Oles' lone shot on goal, which resulted in a loose puck near the Augsburg goal line.

After the puck stayed out, the Auggies took control of the puck and went the other way to win it on Blackowiak's third goal of the night. After scoring times last season, Blackowiak entered the game without a goal in seven games this season.

Special teams played a key role in the win for Augsburg, which was 3-for-8 on the power play, scored a shorthanded goal, and held St. Olaf scoreless opportunities on the man advantage. The hosts held a 35-24 edge in shots on goal in the game. Lalonde finished the game with 29 saves for the Oles, while Vyletelka – who had yielded just nine goals in seven appearances this season entering the night – had 19 saves for the Auggies.

St. Olaf looks to secure a split of the series on home ice in the series finale on Saturday, Dec. 3 at 5 p.m. at St. Olaf Ice Arena.