BLAINE, Minn. – The St. Olaf College men's hockey team lost the opener of its final series of the regular season by a 3-1 score to Bethel University on Friday evening at Bethel University Arena at the National Sports Center.

Bethel (13-8-3, 9-4-2 MIAC) scored once in each period to top St. Olaf (12-9-3, 7-7-1 MIAC) in a rematch of last season's Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) Playoff title game, as the Royals clinched the No. 2 seed in the tournament. The loss left the Oles in a five-way tie for third heading into the final day of the regular season on Saturday.

St. Olaf is tied with Concordia-Moorhead, Saint John's University, Saint Mary's University, and the College of St. Scholastica with 23 points, although the Saints have no games remaining. Gustavus Adolphus College and Bethel have secured the No. 1 and No. 2 spots, with the other five teams vying for the remaining three spots.

Bethel got a shorthanded goal from Jake Herter with 2:14 to go in the first period to take a 1-0 lead after 20 minutes before Joe Westlund doubled the hosts' lead with an unassisted tally at 7:58 of the second. Westlund's goal came after senior Thomas Lalonde came out of the crease to play a puck that Westlund knocked down out of the air and flung towards the net. The puck either went into the net and bounced out quickly or hit the underside of the crossbar and stayed out, but the goal was given.

After seeing his four-game scoring streak snapped last Saturday, junior Jonathan Panisa got back on the scoresheet with a power-play goal at 13:20 of the second period to make it a 2-1 game. Senior Jonathan Young and first year Nicholas Sewecke assisted on Panisa's team-leading 15th goal of the season, which is the highest single-season total by an Ole since Drew Otto '18 also had 15 in 2016-17.

Bethel held onto the lead in the third period and got an empty-net goal from Tyler Braccini with just over one second remaining after St. Olaf pulled Lalonde for the extra attacker for the second time with 1:38 to go. Austin Ryman made 23 saves in the win for the Royals, while Lalonde had 17 in the loss for the Oles.

St. Olaf will look to find its way into the playoffs on the final day of the regular season in the series finale at 5 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 22 at St. Olaf Ice Arena.