NORTHFIELD, Minn. – Sophomore Troy Bowditch scored his first-career hat trick – all in the second period – but the St. Olaf College men's hockey team could not slow down the College of St. Scholastica in a 7-4 loss in Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) play on Friday night at St. Olaf Ice Arena.

After St. Olaf (11-6-1, 5-4-0 MIAC) opened the scoring, St. Scholastica (9-5-2, 6-0-1 MIAC) scored the game's next four goals to build a 4-1 lead a little over a minute into the second period. Bowditch helped the Oles close the gap to one goal on two occasions with three goals in the middle period, but the Saints grabbed the lone two goals of the third to claim the series opener.

In addition to being the first hat trick of his career, Bowditch's hat trick was the first by an Ole since classmate Tyler Cooper scored a program-record four goals in a 5-2 victory over Bethel on Dec. 11, 2021. The three-goal night brought Bowditch's season total to 25 points on nine goals and 16 assists in 18 games.

Sophomore Jonathan Young opened the scoring for the Oles at 6:15 of the first period, sending the puck into an open goal after sophomore Matthew Pointer slid the puck across to Young after Pointer's initial shot was saved. The Saints answered with a flurry of three goals in the span of 2:59, including two goals 20 seconds apart, to take a 3-1 lead after 20 minutes.

Just 1:12 into the second period, St. Scholastica stretched its lead to 4-1 with a shorthanded goal by Filimon Ledenkov, whose backhand shot went high off the glass behind the goal and over the line after a St. Olaf skater tried to glove the puck to prevent it from being loose in front. St. Olaf started its rally just 27 seconds later on a power-play goal by Bowditch, who fired home a one-timer from the right side off a cross-ice pass from senior Evan Shoemaker.

Bowditch made it a 4-3 game with his second goal of the night at 11:17, picking out the top-right corner from the slot off assists from Pointer and senior Ashton Altmann, but the visitors answered just 21 seconds later to push their lead back to two at 5-3. Bowditch capped his second-period hat trick at the 13:03 mark, jamming the puck home from close range after Cooper drove to the net on the power play and saw his initial shot saved. Cooper had an opportunity to tie the game at 5-5 with over three minutes to go in the period but was denied on a breakaway by Jack Bostedt.

Nathan Adrian scored on a breakaway of his own for St. Scholastica midway through the third period to give St. Scholastica an insurance goal at 6-4. The visitors tacked on a power-play goal with 2:33 to go to cap the scoring. St. Olaf has yielded 15 goals over its last two home games.

Bostedt collected the win with a 27-save evening for the Saints, who chased junior Lukas Haugen after less than 12 minutes with their three early goals. First year Tyler Laureault made 16 stops over the final 47-plus minutes for St. Olaf.

The Oles play their next four games on the road, starting with the series finale in Duluth on Saturday, Jan. 21 at 7 p.m.