NORTHFIELD, Minn. – The St. Olaf College men's hockey team twice rallied from a goal down to tie the game, but Saint John's scored just 47 seconds after the Oles tied the game at 2-2 in the third period and went on to claim a 4-2 win in the teams' series opener on Friday night at St. Olaf Ice Arena.
Saint John's (14-6-2, 7-3 1 MIAC) led 2-1 after one period and held onto that lead until first year
Tyler Cooper scored the second power-play goal of the night for St. Olaf (8-13-3, 5-7-1 MIAC) at 13:29 of the third to tie the game for a second time. The Johnnies responded just 47 seconds later to go back ahead and added an empty-net goal to seal the win late on.
Prior to the game, the Oles recognized their five-man senior class of
Cooper Lukenda,
Jared Pedersen,
Mitch Dolter,
Dana Engram, and
Colin Cain on the ice for their contributions to the program over the last four years.
The visitors went ahead early on an unassisted goal by Jackson Sabo, who capitalized on a mistake in front of the St. Olaf goal to fire the puck home from close range at 4:15 of the first period. Just over seven minutes later, the Oles got even at a goal apiece on a 5-on-3 goal by first year
Sean Walsh, who was on hand at the back door to put the puck home off assists from classmates
Jonathan Young and
Connor Kalthoff.
Not long after a Johnnie power play expired, Saint John's went back ahead on a goal by Auggie Moore inside the final minutes of the period to take a 2-1 lead after 20 minutes. Neither team scored in the second period, although the Johnnies hit the post three times and St. Olaf had an extended 5-on-3 power play for 1:02 midway through the period.
With the Johnnies still ahead by a goal, Cooper netted the Oles' second power-play goal of the game on a wraparound at 13:29 of the third period after getting the puck from junior
Evan Shoemaker. The first year started on the right side of the goal while drawing Saint John's goaltender Mac Berglove out of the net before circling behind the net and scoring his team-leading 12th goal of the season to tie the game at 2-2.
The Johnnies answered just 47 seconds later on a goal by Matt DeRosa before sophomore
Lukas Haugen made a highlight-reel save to thwart Max Borst on a 2-on-1 rush with 4:29 remaining to keep it a one-goal deficit. Saint John's, however, got an empty-net goal from Dan Wieber with 1:02 to go to seal the win despite going 0-for-7 on the power play in the game.
Berglove earned the win with a 19-save outing for the Johnnies, while Haugen took the loss with a 21-save night for the Oles.
The two teams wrap up their series on Saturday, Feb. 1 at 1 p.m. at Herb Brooks National Hockey Center in St. Cloud in what is the regular-season finale for St. Olaf.
