PLATTSBURGH, N.Y. – The St. Olaf College men's hockey team was edged 2-1 by top-ranked Plattsburgh State in the first-ever meeting between the two programs on the opening night of the LayerEight Shootout on Friday night at Ronald B. Stafford Ice Arena.

Bennett Stockdale scored in each of the first two periods to give Plattsburgh State (7-0-0) a 2-0 lead before junior Tyler Cooper made it interesting for St. Olaf (4-4-1) with an extra-attacker goal with 1:27 remaining. The Oles nearly found another late goal in the closing seconds, but Eli Shiller denied junior Jonathan Young a tying goal with 4.4 seconds remaining to help the Cardinals hold on.

With the win, Plattsburgh State moved to 5-0-0 at home this season – and 24-6-4 since the start of 2021-22 – and advanced to face No. 11-ranked Norwich University in the championship game on Saturday, Nov. 25 at 6 p.m. CST. The Oles will take on Middlebury College, which lost to the Cadets by a 7-1 score in the first game of the day on Friday, in the consolation game at 2:30 p.m. CST.

The game was St. Olaf's fifth game against a No. 1-ranked team since 2008 and its first since an 8-2 loss to UW-Stevens Point on Jan. 5, 2019. The Oles were the first Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) program to compete at the post-Thanksgiving tournament since Concordia-Moorhead in 2016-17.

Stockdale gave the Cardinals a 1-0 lead after the first 20 minutes by tipping in a shot by Lonan Bulger with the hosts on the power play at the 16:51 mark of the opening period. The goal came just 15 seconds into the power play and less than two minutes after senior Lukas Haugen thwarted Ryan Hogg's wrap-around attempt to keep the game scoreless.

St. Olaf had a power play late in the first period that carried over into the start of the second and another 1:33 into the second period but could not capitalize on a night where it went 0-for-5 on the man advantage. With under seven minutes to go in the period, first year Joey Kennelly had a chance to make it a 1-1 game but fired just over the bar from the left side with the Oles on the power play. Two minutes later, Stockdale doubled Plattsburgh State's lead with his second of the night to make it 2-0 after two.

In the third, St. Olaf had chances on each of its two power plays but could not get on the board. With less than five minutes left, first year Tony Leahy held off a Cardinal while driving to the net on his backhand shorthanded but saw his shot saved by Eli Shiller.

With the Oles still facing a 2-0 deficit, Cooper buried a shot from the top of the left circle right after a timeout with 1:27 to go to make it a one-goal game. Cooper's goal came after sophomore Jonathan Panisa won a faceoff back to junior Cody Sherman, who slid the puck across the ice to Cooper, as Sherman picked up his fourth point in the last three games.

St. Olaf was able to pull Haugen for the extra attacker with 1:07 to go and again with 36 seconds remaining and generated two chances in the final 10 seconds to tie the game. With eight seconds to go, Shiller held a shot by junior Connor Kalthoff and, off the ensuing faceoff, the Cardinals' netminder slid across to save Young's shot from the right circle.

Plattsburgh State held a 31-20 advantage in shots on goal in the game, although the overall shot count was just 54-51 in favor of the hosts. Shiller collected the win with a 19-save night for the Cardinals, while Haugen had 29 saves in the loss for the Oles.