RIVER FALLS, Wis. – First year
Tony Leahy scored twice and senior
Lukas Haugen had a 30-save shutout to lead the St. Olaf College men's hockey team to a 3-0 victory over UW-River Falls on Friday night at Hunt Arena.
After junior
Tyler Cooper opened the scoring with a power-play goal late in the first period, Leahy scored in each of the final two periods for St. Olaf (2-2-1), which claimed its third-straight victory in the series with UW-River Falls (2-2-0) with the win. Haugen stopped all 30 shots he faced for the Oles to earn the first shutout of his career.
Cooper got the scoring started for St. Olaf at 16:05 of the opening period for St. Olaf, as the Oles capitalized on the second of two UW-River Falls penalties in the span of less than a minute. The Falcons returned one skater after the Oles had 1:04 of 5-on-3 time but could not kill off the second penalty, as Cooper fired the puck into a vacated net after St. Olaf got Dysen Skinner out of position, with juniors
Jonathan Young and
Ben Luscko claiming assists on the goal.
The score remained 1-0 until Leahy got his first goal of the night at 15:24 of the second period. After forcing a turnover at his own blue line, the first year raced in on a breakaway, held off a defenseman, and fired the puck in under the bar for his first collegiate goal.
Leahy added a second goal midway through the third period to close out the scoring and give St. Olaf a 3-0 advantage. From behind his own goal, senior
Noah Heisler sent the puck up the right boards to junior
Sean Walsh, who steered the puck up ice to get Leahy in on goal for another breakaway goal.
The three goals were more than enough for Haugen, who made 13 of his 30 saves in the third period to preserve the shutout. Skinner finished the night with 18 saves for the hosts, who held a 30-21 advantage in shots on goal in the game. The Oles killed off all five of the Falcons' power-play opportunities and were 1-for-3 on their own chances with the advantage.
St. Olaf finishes off its Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) crossover weekend with a visit to No. 13-ranked UW-Stevens Point for a 7 p.m. puck drop on Saturday, Nov. 11.
