WINONA, Minn. – The St. Olaf College men's hockey team dropped its Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) series finale to Saint Mary's University after the Cardinals scored three times in the third period to claim a 4-1 win on Saturday evening at SMU Ice Arena.

After Saint Mary's (10-12-1, 6-7-1 MIAC) opened the scoring midway through the second period, senior Tyler Cooper tied it up for St. Olaf (12-8-3, 7-6-1 MIAC) later in the period, but the Cardinals scored twice in the first 4:12 of the third and added an empty-netter to gain a split. The loss and results across the conference left the Oles in a three-way tie for third place in the MIAC with one weekend remaining.

St. Olaf and Saint John's University are level on 23 points with two games left, while the College of St. Scholastica also has 23 points but has no games remaining. Concordia-Moorhead and Saint Mary's are both three points behind the three tied teams.

Warner Young made the breakthrough for Saint Mary's to give the hosts the lead at 8:40 of the second period, but St. Olaf replied less than eight minutes later on Cooper's fifth goal of the season to tie the game at 1-1 after two. Senior Eric Brown picked up the assist on Cooper's tally for his second assist of the season.

The Cardinals got a goal from Tommy Wright 2:17 into the third and another from leading-scorer Colin Tushie less than two minutes later to open up a 3-1 lead. Saint Mary's maintained the two-goal advantage before Joona Juntunen scored an empty-netter with 15 seconds to go.

Senior Thomas Lalonde saw his string of five consecutive victories come to an end despite making 26 saves for St. Olaf, while A.J. Ruskowski made an identical total of saves for Saint Mary's to pick up the win.

The Oles will head to the National Sports Center in Blaine for their series opener against Bethel University on Friday, Feb. 21 at 7 p.m.