ST. CLOUD, Minn. – The St. Olaf College men's hockey team fell victim to a hat trick by Spencer Rudrud in a 5-1 series-opening loss to Saint John's University on Friday evening at the Herb Brooks National Hockey Center.

Rudrud scored twice in the second period and added an empty-netter in the third to lead Saint John's (5-1-0, 3-0-0 MIAC) to the four-goal victory over St. Olaf (2-4-1, 1-2-0 MIAC), which got a goal from junior Jonathan Panisa in the second period to make it a 2-1 game at the time. The Johnnies received votes in this week's USCHO.com national poll and picked up their fifth consecutive victory – four of which have come at home – with the win.

Chris Kernan tallied the lone goal of the opening period for Saint John's at the 17:22 mark to give the Johnnies a 1-0 advantage at the first intermission. After the Oles were assessed a five-minute major late in the first and a minor penalty three seconds into the second period, Rudrud struck for his first of the night on the 5-on-3 power play to make it 2-0 just 1:22 into the middle period.

St. Olaf got back within a goal at 7:08 of the second period when Panisa scored his third goal of the season to make it a one-goal game. After collecting the puck in his own defensive zone, Panisa skated into the offensive zone and fired the puck in from the right circle for an unassisted tally.

Rudrud broke the 1-1 tie a little over six minutes later to push the Johnnies' lead to 3-1 after two. The two-goal difference remained intact until Rob Christy made it 4-1 at the 11:56 mark of the third. Rudrud capped the scoring and finished off his hat trick with an empty-netter with 1:50 to go.

St. Olaf held a one-shot advantage (34-33) in shots on goal in the game but was 0-for-4 on the power play. Jon Howe picked up the victory with a 33-save evening for the Johnnies, while junior Tyler Laureault took the loss with a 28-save performance.

Game two of the series is set for 5 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 23 at St. Olaf Ice Arena.