MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. – The fifth-seeded St. Olaf College men's hockey team returned to the championship game of the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) Playoffs for the second time in three seasons with a 4-0 road win over top-seeded Augsburg University in the semifinals on Saturday evening at Ed Saugestad Rink.

St. Olaf (13-11-3) got one point apiece from nine different skaters and junior Thomas Lalonde logged his second consecutive shutout with a 32-save night as the Oles shut out Augsburg (15-9-2) for their sixth road playoff win (6-1-0) in the MIAC Playoffs in the last three seasons. The shutout was the first for the Auggies, who received votes in this week's USCHO.com national poll, in 81 games at home dating back to a 2-0 loss to the University of St. Thomas on Dec. 1, 2017.

With the win, the Oles advanced to the championship game of the MIAC Playoffs for the fourth time in program history (2006, 2012, 2022, 2024). St. Olaf will visit second-seeded Bethel University for the postseason title and an automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament on Saturday, March 2 at 7 p.m. The Royals outlasted the third-seeded College of St. Scholastica 2-1 in double overtime on Saturday night.

In a matchup of the last two MIAC Playoff champions, the Oles got goals from sophomore Gunnar Johnson, junior Ben Luscko, junior Sean Walsh, and junior Eric Brown in the victory. The Auggies had won the MIAC Playoffs in five of the last seven seasons (2016-19, 2023), with St. Olaf (2022) and St. Thomas (2020) being the only other programs to win a title in the span.

Augsburg outshot St. Olaf by a 16-6 margin in the opening period, but the Oles got the only goal of the period from Johnson at the 6:34 mark to carry a 1-0 lead into the first intermission. Johnson scored his first collegiate goal in his 49th collegiate game by firing a shot through traffic from a stride inside the zone after senior Troy Bowditch won a faceoff back to Johnson. The Auggies generated six shots on goal on the power play over the final two minutes of the period, but Lalonde was equal to the task on all six.

Shortly after a St. Olaf power play expired, the Oles doubled their lead at 12:41 of the second period on Luscko's second goal of the season. After senior Connor Kalthoff got the puck to first year Tony Leahy on the left side, Leahy softly sent the puck towards the net but got a rebound for Luscko to convert with a shot under the bar. The goal was Luscko's first since Nov. 25.

The Oles added a third goal less than three minutes later from Walsh, who was on-hand to throw the puck home after Augsburg goaltender Samuel Vyletelka played the puck behind the goal but sent it straight into junior Jonathan Young and the puck ricocheted to Walsh. The goal was Walsh's second of the season and first in 11 games going back to Jan. 5.

Up 3-0 after two, St. Olaf protected the three-goal advantage by killing off a late second-period penalty and a penalty midway through the third period. Needing three goals late to keep its season alive, Augsburg pulled Vyletelka for much of the final four-plus minutes, but the Oles got the final goal of the game when Brown scored an empty-netter with 1:12 remaining for his second consecutive game with an empty-net tally.

After not recording a shutout in his first 12 starts of the season, Lalonde claimed his second in a row with a 32-save night, which marked his second-highest save total of the season. The shutout was the fifth of the junior's career, breaking a tie with Steve Papciak and Jeff Wilde for the most in recorded program history.