ASHLAND, Wis. – Sophomore
Troy Bowditch scored his second overtime game-winning goal of the season at 3:02 of the extra session to give the St. Olaf College men's hockey team a 3-2 road victory over Northland College on Saturday afternoon at Bay Area Civic Center.
With the teams locked at 2-2, Bowditch took a drop pass from classmate
Jonathan Young, faked out the advancing Northland (1-15-1) goaltender, and flipped the puck into the vacant net inside the final two minutes of the overtime period to give St. Olaf (10-4-1) the win. The victory improved the Oles to 3-1 in games decided in overtime this season, as St. Olaf improved to 4-0-0 on the season following a loss and completed a sweep of the LumberJacks.
Northland netted the lone goal of the opening period on a power-play goal by Luke Hartge at the 17:37 mark to take a 1-0 lead at the first intermission. Before Hartge's goal, the Oles had a pair of quality chances to open the scoring, but senior
Evan Shoemaker rang a backhand off the pipe two minutes in and first year
Jonathan Panisa was unable to convert on a penalty shot six minutes before Northland's goal.
St. Olaf overcame the 1-0 deficit with a pair of second-period goals to take a 2-1 lead after two periods. Sophomore
Connor Kalthoff tallied his fourth goal of the season at the 6:57 mark to tie the game, firing the puck in under the bar from between the two circles. Just over seven minutes later, sophomore
Tyler Cooper scored his second goal of the weekend – his team-leading ninth of the season – off a feed from Bowditch to put the Oles on top at 14:16 of the middle period.
The LumberJacks tied the game at 2-2 on Jackson Breton's goal at 12:35 of the third period. Northland also got a power play on a minor penalty before the ensuing faceoff but was unable to break the tie, as the game went to overtime where Bowditch won it for St. Olaf.
Bowditch's game-winning goal came seconds after first year
Tyler Laureault made a pad save to prevent a close-range shot by Zach Ross. Bowditch also scored the game-winning 3-on-3 goal in the Oles' 2-1 overtime win over Bethel University on Dec. 10.
In his fourth collegiate start, Laureault made a season-high 35 saves to earn his second victory for St. Olaf. Viktor Wennberg stopped 32 shots in the loss for Northland, which held a 37-36 edge in shots on goal in the game.
The Oles return to Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) play next weekend against Saint Mary's University. The series opener is set for 7 p.m. at St. Olaf Ice Arena on Friday, Jan. 13.
