NORTHFIELD, Minn. – The St. Olaf College men's hockey completed its first sweep of Saint John's University since 2010-11 with a commanding 7-1 victory on Friday night at St. Olaf Ice Arena.

St. Olaf (10-10-3, 6-6-2 MIAC) followed up a 3-1 road win the night before with its largest margin of victory in a Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) game this season in the 7-1 win over Saint John's (9-12-4, 6-9-1 MIAC). Before this weekend, the Oles had been just 6-16-2 in the series with the Johnnies dating back to 2-1 and 4-3 victories on Feb. 18-19, 2011.

With the win and results elsewhere in the conference, St. Olaf moved into sole possession of the fifth and final MIAC Playoff spot on 20 points and closed to within one point of Saint John's, which has completed its regular-season schedule. The Oles are one point ahead of Saint Mary's University and three ahead of Concordia-Moorhead, which both have three games remaining. The Cardinals claimed a 4-2 come-from-behind win over the College of St. Scholastica, while the Cobbers fell 7-2 to Gustavus Adolphus College on Friday evening.

Sixteen of St. Olaf's 19 dressed skaters recorded at least one point in the win. Sophomore Jonathan Panisa and junior Connor Kalthoff were the lone Oles with multi-point nights with a goal and an assist apiece.

The Oles netted the lone goal of the opening period when first year Camden Benson scored on a low wrist shot from between the circles at the 5:10 mark for the second goal of his collegiate career. Saint John's had a pair of power plays in the opening period but generated just two shots on goal during the four minutes with the advantage. St. Olaf carried a 1-0 lead into the first intermission after outshooting the visitors by a 10-4 margin.

With the score still at 1-0 past the midway point of the second period, the Oles stretched their lead to 3-0 on goals by junior Matthew Pointer and Panisa 1:23 apart. Saint John's cut its deficit to two goals with 4:06 to go in the period on a goal by Garrett Smith, but St. Olaf reclaimed a three-goal lead inside the final minute of the period when senior Parker Casey fired the puck in from close range to make it a 4-1 game after two.

Just nine seconds into the third period, Kalthoff extended St. Olaf's lead to 5-1 with an unassisted goal, which came after Saint John's won the faceoff but gave away the puck to Kalthoff near center ice. The junior weaved past one Johnnie skater and had a clear path to the net to score his fifth goal in the last six games. The goal was the second-quickest to start a period for the Oles since 2001.

With Saint John's more-or-less needing a win to stay in contention for a playoff spot, the Johnnies pulled their goalie to create a 5-on-4 advantage midway through the period, but St. Olaf capitalized on the aggressiveness with an empty-net goal from first year Tony Leahy. Leahy was held with while fending off a Saint John's skater on the empty-net goal, and the Oles cashed in on the ensuing power play through junior Cody Sherman. With an assist on Sherman's goal, Kalthoff brought his total to 14 points in the last 10 games.

Junior Thomas Lalonde moved to 6-2-2 on the season by stopping 13 of the 14 shots he faced before departing after two periods for senior Lukas Haugen, who stopped all 10 shots on goal Saint John's mustered in the third period. Bailey Huber finished the night with 21 saves for the visitors.

St. Olaf opens its final series of the regular season at Gustavus on Friday, Feb. 16 at 7 p.m.