NORTHFIELD, Minn. – The St. Olaf College men's hockey team dropped a wild 5-4 affair to Concordia-Moorhead in the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) series opener between the two teams on Tuesday night at St. Olaf Ice Arena.

Concordia (9-7-2, 4-4-1 MIAC) scored three power-play goals to open up a 4-2 lead after two periods before St. Olaf (8-9-2, 4-5-2 MIAC) got within a goal with over six minutes remaining. The Cobbers, who never trailed in the game, pushed their lead back to two goals with an empty-netter with 1:24 remaining. The Oles got back within a goal with 30 seconds remaining to stay in with a chance but could not pull off the late comeback.

Junior Connor Kalthoff and senior Parker Casey had a goal and an assist apiece in the loss, while junior Cody Sherman handed out a pair of assists for the Oles. Junior Jonathan Young and senior Troy Bowditch also scored in the loss. The win for the Cobbers brought Concordia within a point of St. Olaf for the fifth and final MIAC Playoff spot.

Concordia, which entered the game with the top power play in the MIAC at 21.5 percent, got on the board first at 4:14 of the opening period when Hanson O'Learly struck on the power play, firing home from the right circle off a cross-ice feed from Isaac Henkemeyer-Howe, who had two goals and one assist for the visitors.

St. Olaf, which was just behind Concordia on the power play at 21.1 percent coming in, got a power-play goal of its own from Young at 11:02 of the first period to tie the game at 1-1, as Young tipped in a shot from the left circle by sophomore Jonathan Panisa. The tied lasted just seven seconds, however, as the Cobbers went back ahead right off the ensuing faceoff. From the red line, Hunter Bjorge lofted the puck towards the Oles' net, and the puck took a sideways bounce past junior Thomas Lalonde to make it 2-1 Concordia after one.

Henkemeyer-Howe added two more power-play goals in the second to help Concordia double its lead to 4-2 after 40 minutes. Just 1:32 into the period, Henkemeyer-Howe dug the puck out of the right corner, skated towards the net, and scored over Lalonde's blocker to make it 3-1 and chase Lalonde.

St. Olaf got back within a goal at 3-2 on an unassisted goal by senior Troy Bowditch at 11:33 of the second, as Bowditch picked off a pass in the offensive zone and slung the puck into the top-right corner from the middle of the left circle. The Cobbers struck back a little more than five minutes later with another power-play goal, however, as Henkemeyer-Howe tipped in a shot by Bauer Barry from the top of the left circle to make it 4-2 after two.

Kalthoff brought St. Olaf within a goal again with the Oles' second power-play goal of the night on his fourth goal in the last three games. After Casey and Sherman got the puck from the right wall to Kalthoff, the junior slung a shot through traffic from straight on at 13:46 of the third to make it a 4-3 game. The goal game after Sherman fired a shot off the crossbar two minutes earlier in the period with the Oles on the power play.

With just over four minutes to go, Panisa nearly tied the game at 4-4, but his shot from the right side hit the left post and stayed out. St. Olaf pulled its goaltender with 1:38 to go in search of a tying goal, but Concordia got an empty-netter from Hunter Olson 14 seconds later to re-establish a two-goal advantage.

Down by two again, St. Olaf set up a frantic final 30 seconds when Casey scored with 30 seconds to go, as the senior tapped the puck into an empty net after junior Sean Walsh sent the puck to the front of the net from the left corner and Sherman tapped the puck across the cease to Casey. Sherman won the resulting faceoff and Casey got one last shot on goal with 10 seconds left, but Matt Fitzgerald made his 28th save of the night to preserve the win for the Cobbers.

St. Olaf used all three of its goaltenders in the game. Lalonde made 11 saves in the first 21:32 before giving way to sophomore Tyler Laureault, who stopped all 10 shots he faced in 14:08 between the pipes but left due to an injury. Senior Lukas Haugen faced just five shots over the final 23:13 and made four saves.

The two teams close out their series on Friday, Jan. 26 at Warroad Athletic Complex as part of Hockey Day MN. Puck drop is at 5:30 p.m.