WINONA, Minn. – The fifth-seeded St. Olaf College men's hockey team blanked fourth-seeded Saint Mary's University by a 3-0 score in the quarterfinals of the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) Playoffs on Wednesday night at SMU Ice Arena.

Junior Cody Sherman had a goal and an assist and classmate Thomas Lalonde stopped all 23 shots he faced to lead St. Olaf (12-11-3) into the semifinals for the third season in a row. The win avenged the Oles' sweep at the hands of Saint Mary's (10-14-2) during the regular season and maintained St. Olaf's perfect all-time mark in the quarterfinal round (8-0-0).

The game was the first meeting between the two programs in the postseason since 2004, when the fifth-seeded Oles went to Winona and downed the fourth-seeded Cardinals by a 5-3 margin. The victory was just the fourth win of the season away from home for St. Olaf this season as the Oles improved to 4-8-2 away from St. Olaf Ice Arena.

With the win, St. Olaf, which is 5-1-0 in its six road playoff games over the last three seasons, advances to the semifinals to face top-seeded and MIAC regular-season champion Augsburg University on Saturday, Feb. 24 at 7 p.m. at Ed Saugestad Rink in Minneapolis. The Oles and Auggies split their regular-season back on Dec. 1-2, with the home team winning each game.

Sherman tallied his sixth multi-point game of the season by scoring the opening goal and adding an assist on St. Olaf's second goal. Junior Jonathan Young added to his team-leading goal tally by netting the Oles' second goal before junior Eric Brown sealed the win with an empty-netter on the power play in the final minute.

Lalonde ran his record to 8-2-2 and collected his first shutout of the season between the pipes for the Oles. St. Olaf limited Saint Mary's to five shots on goal on five power plays over the course of the game.

The Oles nearly opened the scoring inside the first two minutes of the game when junior Ben Luscko robbed a Saint Mary's skater of the puck to create a 2-on-1 rush but saw his shot ring off the post. St. Olaf did not have to wait long to get on the board, however, when Sherman got the puck out of the right corner, skated to the left near the slot, and fired the puck into the top-right corner for his seventh goal of the season at the 6:56 mark.

Sherman's tally was the lone goal of the opening two periods, which saw St. Olaf kill off four Saint Mary's power plays, including three in the second period alone. Midway through the second, Young and junior Sean Walsh formed a 2-on-1 rush for the Oles, but Walsh's shot missed the net. Three minutes later, Walsh weaved through the Cardinals' defense before lifting a shot the A.J. Ruskowski got a piece of to force over the net.

Still with a 1-0 lead, St. Olaf doubled its advantage just 22 seconds into the third period on a delayed penalty against Saint Mary's. Seconds after Walsh drove to the net to draw a hooking penalty, Young threw the puck in after senior Noah Heisler's shot was blocked and came to Young to get Young into double figures on the season. Sherman also picked up an assist on the goal after getting the puck to Heisler.

The Cardinals got their fifth power play of the game with 4:50 remaining but could not muster a shot of any kind over the two-minute power play. With 2:02 to go, Saint Mary's committed a slashing penalty, essentially allowing St. Olaf to run out the clock. The Oles cashed in on the power play when senior Kaz Matsuo got the puck up to Brown to toss into an empty net from center ice with the Cardinals needing to get Ruskowski off the ice chasing two goals.

St. Olaf outshot Saint Mary's by a 40-23 count in the game and total shot attempts were 71-37 in favor of the Oles. Ruskowski kept the Cardinals in it for most of the game and finished with 37 saves.