MENOMONIE, Wis. – The No. 14-ranked St. Olaf College men's hockey team saw its seven-game unbeaten streak come to an end with a 6-3 road loss to No. 13/14-ranked UW-Stout on Saturday night at Fanetti Community Center.

After scoring just 44 seconds in, St. Olaf (7-3-5) only held the lead for 20 seconds before UW-Stout (12-4-1) tallied three unanswered goals to build a 3-1 lead. Sophomore Panayioti Efraimidis made it a one-goal game after one with his second goal of the opening period, but the Blue Devils scored the next two goals to build a 5-2 lead and went on to complete the win. St. Olaf was ranked No. 14 in this week's D-III Hockey News national poll, while UW-Stout was No. 13 in that poll and No. 14 in the USCHO balloting.

In addition to Efraimidis' first collegiate two-goal performance, first year Hunter Hayes had the other goal for the Oles in the loss. St. Olaf had been unbeaten in the last three meetings (2-0-1) with UW-Stout dating back to 2020.

Both teams scored with their first shots of the game in the first 1:04 of a five-goal first period. Efraimidis scored unassisted just 44 seconds in for St. Olaf, but UW-Stout answered just 20 seconds later on a goal by Will Sinclair. Maksis Brimanis and Brendan Boyce also registered first-period goals to give the Blue Devils a 3-1 lead before Efraimidis capped the five-goal period with 2:57 remaining to make it a 3-2 game after 20 minutes.

Nicholas Pigeon recorded a power-play goal just 22 seconds into the second period before Tyler Pfister stretched the hosts' lead to 5-2 before the midway point of the period. Hayes gave the Oles hope of a third-period comeback by scoring with 15.7 seconds to go in the second, but a five-minute major after the whistle on the Oles led to a power-play goal early in the third for the Blue Devils that proved to be the final goal of the game.

UW-Stout was 2-for-4 on the power play in the win and killed off both of St. Olaf's power-play opportunities. Sophomore Matthew Malin made 31 saves for the Oles, while Dawson Green had 25 for the Blue Devils.

St. Olaf will look to bounce back from just its third loss of the season with a Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) series against Concordia-Moorhead next weekend at St. Olaf Ice Arena. The opener is set for 7 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 23.