MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. – The seventh-seeded St. Olaf College men's hockey team punched its ticket to the NCAA Tournament for the second time in program history by upsetting top-seeded and fourth-ranked Augsburg University, 5-2, in the championship game of the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) Playoffs on Saturday night at Ed Saugestad Rink.

In its third appearance in the conference's championship game, St. Olaf (11-14-3) completed a remarkable run trough the MIAC Playoffs that saw the Oles defeat the tournament's top-three seeds on their home ice to secure the conference's automatic bid into the 2022 NCAA Division III Men's Ice Hockey Championship. Augsburg (24-4-0) suffered its first home loss of the season and saw its 16-game home winning streak come to an end.

St. Olaf will find out where it is headed and who it will face in the NCAA Tournament on the NCAA Selection Show at 9 a.m. CST on Monday, March 7. The show will air on NCAA.com. The Auggies will also await word on a potential at-large berth into the 12-team field.

First year Jonathan Young tallied a career-high three points and had his first collegiate two-goal game, netting two goals and handing out an assist to lead the way for St. Olaf. First years Sean Walsh and Parker Casey also tallied goals in the game, as did sophomore Brendan Darby, while sophomore Lukas Haugen stopped 25 of the 27 shots he faced between the pipes.

The win was St. Olaf's second victory against a top-five team in the last 15 seasons and the first since a 3-2 win over No. 2-ranked UW-Stevens Point on Nov. 8, 2014. The Oles had lost their last eight games against top-five teams, including getting swept by No. 4 Augsburg during the regular season.

The teams appeared destined to head to the locker rooms scoreless after 20 minutes until Casey flipped in a rebound off a shot by first year Ben Luscko with 25.3 seconds remaining in the period. The goal came after St. Olaf piled on the pressure late in the period, drawing a pair of saves from Jack Robbel in the final two minutes. The Oles held a 10-4 advantage in shots on goal in the opening period.

St. Olaf stretched its lead to 3-0 after two periods with a pair of unassisted goals in the middle period. Young recorded his first goal of the night at the 7:20 mark, keeping the puck in the offensive zone on an attempted clearance by the Auggies before skating to the slot and picking out the top-left corner. The goal marked the third-straight playoff game that Young had scored in.

After killing off an Augsburg power play midway through the period, the Oles extended their lead to three goals when Walsh stole the puck off an Auggie in front of the net on the left before skating across the edge of the crease and tucking the puck home for his 12th goal of the season. It was also Walsh's fifth goal in the last seven games.

Early in the third, St. Olaf took advantage of its first power-play opportunity of the game, scoring just 10 seconds into the man advantage when Young beat Augsburg goaltender Jack Robbel near side from the left circle at 4:05 after being set up with a cross-ice pass from Luscko. The Auggies got one goal back with a power-play goal of their own from Jarod Blackowiak at the 10:31 mark.

Trailing by three, Augsburg pulled Robbel for the extra attacked with 4:01 remaining and was made to pay as Darby fired the puck into the empty net 27 seconds later to seal the win with his sixth goal of the season. The Auggies got a late consolation goal from Austin Dollimer with 47 seconds remaining to close out the scoring.

St. Olaf held a 29-27 advantage in shots on goal in the game and blocked 21 shots in the win. Seven Oles had multiple blocked shots, led by sophomore Noah Heisler and first year Troy Bowditch with three apiece.

Haugen made 15 of his 25 saves in the game in the second period to collect his eighth win of the season and is now 5-1 in his last six starts. Robbel suffered just his second loss of the season with a 24-save effort for Augsburg, which had won four of the previous five MIAC Playoff titles (2016-19) and had won all five of its previous appearances in the championship game.