DE PERE, Wis. – The St. Olaf College men's hockey team fell behind in the opening minute and could not recover in a 3-0 loss to fifth-ranked St. Norbert College in its season opener on Friday night at Cornerstone Community Center.

In the third consecutive season opener between the two programs, St. Norbert (1-0-0) got a power-play goal from Braydon Beahm 36 seconds in and went on to blank St. Olaf (0-1-0) on opening night. The Oles limited the Green Knights – who won last season's opening game by an 8-4 score and were ranked No. 5 in the USCHO Division III Men's Preseason Poll this season – to one goal the rest of the way before St. Norbert netted an empty-netter in the final minute.

After St. Olaf was assessed a holding penalty just 27 seconds in, Beahm scored just nine seconds into the ensuing power play to give the hosts the lone goal they would need. Logan Dombrowsky doubled the Green Knights' lead midway through the second period before Bryan Gilman tallied an empty-netter with 52.4 seconds to go.

St. Norbert owned a 30-15 advantage in shots on goal in the game and got a 15-save shutout from Hunter Garvey. First year Ryan Nolan stopped 27-of-29 shots in his collegiate debut for St. Olaf, which was 0-for-4 on the power play on the night. After the very-early power-play goal, the Oles killed off the Green Knights' other four opportunities on the power play, one of which was limited to 20 seconds.

The series finale is set for a 5 p.m. puck drop on Saturday, Nov. 1 back at Cornerstone Community Center.