NORTHFIELD, Minn. – The St. Olaf College men's hockey team got third-period goals from senior Matthew Pointer and sophomore Joey Kennelly 21 seconds apart to overcome a 2-1 deficit and return to the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) Playoffs with a 3-2 victory over Bethel University on Saturday at St. Olaf Ice Arena.

For the third season in a row, St. Olaf (13-9-3, 8-7-1 MIAC) had to wait until the final day of the regular season to clinch a playoff spot, but the Oles got the job done against Bethel (13-9-3, 9-5-2 MIAC) behind the third-period goals from Pointer and Kennelly. St. Olaf entered the day knowing that two points would lock up a spot in the five-team field, regardless of the outcome of other games across the conference.

With the victory and other results in the MIAC, St. Olaf will be the No. 3 seed in next week's MIAC Playoffs and will match up again with Bethel – the No. 2 seed – in the semifinals on Saturday, March 1 at 7 p.m. The appearance will be the 16th in program history for the Oles, who have won the tournament in two of the last three seasons.

First year Nicholas Sewecke gave the Oles the lead with the lone goal of the first period at the 7:16 mark, flipping the puck in from just outside the crease for his eighth goal of the season. The two teams combined for five first-period penalties, including a power play that carried over into the second for Bethel, and Sewecke's goal came on St. Olaf's first power play of the game.

St. Olaf held onto the 1-0 lead until late in the second period when Joe Westlund set up Max Hamstad in front at 17:27 to tie the game for Bethel. Tyler Braccini netted his MIAC-leading 18th goal of the season on Bethel's fifth power play of the game at 7:15 of the third period to give the Royals the lead and put a dent into the Oles' playoff hopes.

Just 1:01 later, however, Pointer tipped in a shot by classmate Connor Kalthoff to create the second tie of the game, as Pointer scored his fourth goal of the season in his 100th collegiate game. Just 20 seconds after Pointer's goal, Kennelly collected the puck at his own blue line, entered the offensive zone, and scored over the blocker from the top of the left circle for the eventual game-winning goal. The goal snapped a 10-game goal drought for Kennelly, who last scored on Jan. 3 in a 4-3 win over Lake Forest College.

Down a goal late on, Bethel pulled its goaltender with 1:44 to go shortly after a timeout and generated nine shots over nearly two minutes of sustained time in the offensive end, but senior Thomas Lalonde stopped all three of those efforts that were on goal to finish off a season-high 30-save performance. Marco Duronio made 29 saves in the loss for the visitors.

Tickets for the St. Olaf-Bethel semifinal will go on sale at 10 a.m. on Sunday morning and all tickets will be sold online via HomeTown Ticketing.