NORTHFIELD, Minn. – The No. 15-ranked St. Olaf College men's hockey team exploded for four goals in the first four minutes of the second period and went on to cruise to a 9-1 victory over Hamline University in the teams' Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) series finale on Saturday evening at St. Olaf Ice Arena.

St. Olaf (7-2-4, 3-1-2 MIAC) held a 1-0 lead at the first intermission before scoring four goals in the span of 3:46 inside the first four minutes of the second to get on its way to the eight-goal win over Hamline (3-10-1, 3-4-1 MIAC). The nine goals were the most in a game by the Oles since a 10-0 victory against Northland College on Jan. 6, 2024, while the five-goal second period was the first five-goal period since the second period of that same game. St. Olaf was ranked No. 15 this week by D-III Hockey News.

On an evening where 12 Oles picked up at least one point, St. Olaf got multi-point performances from sophomore Nicholas Sewecke, sophomore Panayioti Efraimidis, first year Cody Kempf, senior Gunnar Johnson, and senior Kelijah McElroy. Sewecke and McElroy had a goal and two assists apiece, Johnson handed out three assists, Kempf scored twice, and Efraimidis added a goal and an assist in the rout.

St. Olaf's top-10 power-play unit in the country went 4-for-6 in the game, marking the first time the Oles scored four power-play goals in a game since a 6-2 victory at Gustavus Adolphus College on Nov. 4, 2017. The Oles held the Pipers to 1-for-6 on the power play in a game that included 14 minor penalties.

First year Evan Smutney scored the lone goal of the opening period at 8:24 for the first of St. Olaf's four power-play goals in the win. The first year snuck a shot through traffic from the right circle for his second collegiate goal on one of the Oles' 15 first-period shots on goal.

St. Olaf broke the game wide open in the first four minutes of the second period with goals from Sewecke, Efraimidis, junior Tyler Green, and senior Jonathan Panisa. Sewecke made it 2-0 with a power-play goal just 11 seconds into the period before Efraimidis fired a wrist shot into the top-right corner 21 seconds later to quickly extend the Oles' lead to 3-0.

Green and Panisa capped the four-goal flurry with goals 1:43 apart, with Panisa tallying his team-leading sixth goal of the season to break a tie with Green and sophomore Adam Johnson. AJ Carls got Hamline on the board with a power-play goal at 9:11 of the second before Kempf netted the first of his two goals at the 12:46 mark to cap St. Olaf's five-goal middle period.

In the third, McNaughton and Kempf scored in the space of 19 seconds before McElroy tallied the Oles' fourth power-play goal of the evening at 16:35 to finish off the nine-goal outburst. First year Ryan Nolan improved to 5-2-0 on the season with a 29-save performance for St. Olaf, which held a 39-30 advantage in shots on goal in the win.

The Oles will face a pair of Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) foes next weekend, beginning with a 7 p.m. meeting with UW-River Falls on the road on Friday, Jan. 16.