NORTHFIELD, Minn. – The St. Olaf College men's hockey team was swept by Saint Mary's University after the Cardinals came away with a 3-2 victory on Saturday evening at St. Olaf Ice Arena.

St. Olaf (7-8-2, 3-4-1 MIAC) twice came from behind to tie the game on goals by sophomore Jonathan Panisa, but Noah Kiemel scored his second goal of the game at 16:01 of the third period to give Saint Mary's (5-9-2, 3-4-1 MIAC) its first road win of the season. The Cardinals, who have won five of the last six meetings in the series, entered the weekend in last place in the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) standings but moved all the way up to fifth with the sweep.

Kiemel opened the scoring for Saint Mary's with the lone goal of the opening period, as he flung the puck around a screen and into the top-left corner from the left circle. The score remained 1-0 until Panisa buried a one-timer from the top of the same circle off a cross-ice pass from first year Joey Kennelly for the first of his two power-play goals at 11:19 of the second period.

With the score still tied at 1-1, Connor Abric netted his first collegiate goal at 7:53 of the second period by driving to the net and flipping in a backhand to put the Cardinals back on top. St. Olaf responded less than two minutes later, however, when Panisa rifled home a wrist shot from the left circle just 14 seconds into a power play to complete his first-career two-goal game. Senior Noah Heisler picked up assists on both of Panisa's goals to bring his team-leading total to nine on the season.

St. Olaf appeared to be headed to a power play with 6:10 remaining in the third period when a Cardinal knocked senior Brendan Darby to the ice, but Darby was given a matching penalty for embellishment to create a 4-on-4 situation. Shortly after the penalties expired, Kiemel scored the game-winning goal on a shot from just inside the blue line.

A.J. Ruskowski, who entered the game with a goals-against average of 5.05 for the season, made seven saves over the final three minutes to help the Cardinals hold on for the win. Ruskowski made 35 saves in the victory, while senior Lukas Haugen had 16 in the loss for the Oles.

St. Olaf takes on the nationally-ranked College of St. Scholastica next weekend, with puck drop for the series opener set for 7 p.m. at Mars Lakeview Arena in Duluth on Friday, Jan. 19.