WINONA, Minn. – The St. Olaf College men's hockey team suffered a 5-3 loss to Saint Mary's University in its return to Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) play on Friday night at Saint Mary's Ice Arena.

St. Olaf (7-7-2, 3-3-1 MIAC) led 2-1 after second-period goals by first year Michael Webster and junior Tyler Cooper, but Saint Mary's (4-9-2, 2-4-1 MIAC) scored four of the final five goals to claim its second conference victory of the season. Colin Tushie tallied a hat trick, with all three goals coming in the final 22-plus minute, to lead the Cardinals to the win. All four of Saint Mary's wins this season have come at home.

The Oles committed two penalties in the first seven-plus minutes of the game, and the Cardinals took advantage of the second infraction on a power-play goal by Carter Newpower midway through the opening period. Newpower put home a rebound at the 9:28 mark for the lone goal of the first 20 minutes.

St. Olaf scored twice in the span of less than three minutes to take a 2-1 lead on goals by Webster and Cooper. Webster tied the game at 1-1 at 11:52 of the middle period with his second goal of the season, firing a wrist shot through a screen from the inner edge of the right circle for a 4-on-4 goal. Less than three minutes later, Cooper scored on a mini-breakaway shortly after his penalty expired after junior Connor Kalthoff flicked the puck off the right wall to get it to Cooper.

Saint Mary's responded with Tushie's first goal of the night in the final three minutes of the second period to tie the game at 2-2 after two. With the score still knotted at 2-2, Warner Young put the Cardinals back on top following a scrum in front of the net six minutes into the third, but first year Joey Kennelly re-tied the score 2:31 later with his third goal of the season off a cross-ice pass from junior Cody Sherman.

Tushie tallied an unassisted goal at 15:27 for the eventual game-winning goal before completing his hat trick with 2:07 to go. Saint Mary's held a 34-31 edge in shots on goal in the game and got 28 saves from Matt Sankner in the win. Junior Thomas Lalonde made 29 saves in the loss for St. Olaf.

The series finale between the Oles and Cardinals is set for 5 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 13 at St. Olaf Ice Arena.