NORTHFIELD, Minn. – Despite owning a nearly 2-to-1 advantage in shots on goal in the game, the St. Olaf College men's hockey team dropped its Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) opener to Saint Mary's University (Minn.) by an 8-2 margin on Friday night at St. Olaf Ice Arena.

Saint Mary's (8-7-1, 4-3-0 MIAC) scored twice in the opening four minutes of the game and found the back of the net four times on eight first-period shots on goal to cruise to the victory. St. Olaf (10-5-1, 4-3-0 MIAC) owned a 44-23 advantage on shots on goal in the game but was limited to goals from sophomore Tyler Cooper and senior Evan Shoemaker 15 seconds apart in the third period.

Blake Campbell and Gabe Potyk scored in the first four minutes to get the visitors off to a quick start before Nathan Solis and Nikita Sheberov added goals in the final 10 minutes of the Cardinals' four-goal first period. St. Olaf outshot Saint Mary's by a 14-8 margin in the period and had its best chance of the period fall to first year Jonathan Panisa, who rang a shot off the crossbar from the right circle nine minutes in with the score at 2-0.

The Oles held a commanding 16-4 advantage in shots on goal in the second period, but the Cardinals got the lone goal of the period from Andrew Froese to stretch their lead to 5-0 after two. After Brady Lindauer pushed Saint Mary's lead to 6-0 early in the third, Cooper and Shoemaker scored 15 seconds apart inside the final five minutes for St. Olaf.

Cooper's goal at the 15:14 mark was his team-leading 10th of the season, as he reached double figures for the second-straight year. Sophomore Troy Bowditch earned his team-leading 15th assist of the season by winning a faceoff back to Cooper.

Shoemaker tallied his second goal of the season at 15:29 off assists from junior Noah Heisler and sophomore Eric Brown to make it a 6-2 game before Saint Mary's added a pair of goals in the final two-plus minutes.

Junior Lukas Haugen suffered his first loss of the season for St. Olaf, yielding four goals on eight shots faced over the first 16:32 of the game. Sophomore Thomas Lalonde made 11 stops over the remainder of the game for the Oles. A.J. Ruskowski made at least a dozen saves in each period and finished the night with 42 saves to earn the win for Saint Mary's.

The two teams wrap up their series on Saturday, Jan. 14 at 7 p.m. at SMU Ice Arena in Winona.