NORTHFIELD, Minn. – The St. Olaf College women's hockey team held a 3-1 lead after one period before the College of Saint Benedict rallied for a 4-3 victory as the teams settled for a series split on Saturday afternoon at St. Olaf Ice Arena.

First year Sophie McBane had her first collegiate two-goal game and junior Makenzie Booth netted her first-career goal to give St. Olaf (8-15-0, 2-14-0 MIAC) a 3-1 lead after 20 minutes. Saint Ben's (10-9-1, 6-5-1 MIAC) tied the game after two with a pair of second-period goals and got a game-winning power-play goal from Ava Stinnett midway through the third period.

The Oles were looking for their first Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) sweep since picking up 4-3 and 4-1 victories over St. Kate's on Jan. 27-28, 2017.

McBane gave St. Olaf an early lead by scoring her first goal of the game at 3:05 of the opening period off an assist from junior Annika Patterson. After McBane won a face-off to get the puck to Patterson, Patterson got the puck back to McBane in front of the net for the first year's fourth goal of the season.

The Oles led for over 10 minutes until Annika Brodt netted her first of two goals in the game at 14:26 of the first period to tie the game at 1-1. The tie only lasted 1:13, however, as Booth grabbed her first collegiate goal to break the tie at the 15:39 mark, scoring on the backhand after first year Heather Sager's shot was blocked into her path.

Inside the final two minutes of the first period, St. Olaf extended its lead to 3-1 when McBane got the puck in her own defensive zone, skated into the offensive zone, and threw the puck at the net from just inside the blue line at the end of the shift for an unlikely unassisted goal.

The Bennies regrouped at the first intermission and scored twice in the second period to tie the game at 3-3 after two periods. Zoe Culshaw-Klein got Saint Ben's within a goal at the 7:33 mark before Brodt tallied her second goal of the game on the power play in the final two minutes of the period.

After the Bennies killed off 1:32 of 5-on-3 power-play time for the Oles early in the third, Stinnett provided the game-winner for the visitors at 9:15 of the third period with Saint Ben's second power-play goal of the game. The Bennies were 2-for-3 on the power play in the game, while the Oles were 0-for-4.

Kate Moffat earned the win by stopping all 11 shots she faced over the final two periods after entering in relief of Ally Frantzick, who had six saves in the opening period. Senior Ivy Shonka made 26 saves in the loss for St. Olaf.

In the final series of the regular season, the Oles face St. Kate's next weekend, starting with a 7 p.m. puck drop at home on Friday, Feb. 18.