NORTHFIELD, Minn. – The St. Olaf College men's hockey team dropped its home opener to No. 4/5-ranked St. Norbert College by a 4-2 count on Friday night at St. Olaf Ice Arena.
After St. Olaf (2-1-0) scored the game's first goal at 13:22 of the first period, St. Norbert (2-1-0) answered 14 seconds later to start a string of four consecutive goals for the Green Knights, who were ranked No. 4 by USCHO.com and No. 5 by D-III Hockey News. The visitors scored twice in the span of 1:12 early in the third before senior
Tony Leahy got the game's final goal.
In his collegiate debut, first year
Nayan Pai got the scoring started by putting in a rebound from a sharp angle on the right on the power play at 13:22 of the first. After senior
Bjorn Lervick got the puck across to sophomore
Evan Smutney, Smutney's shot produced a rebound that came to Pai for the Oles' fifth power-play goal of the season.
St. Norbert responded just 14 seconds later with a goal by Jack Seaverson and got another one from Jack Christen four minutes later to take a 2-1 lead into the first intermission. After a scoreless second period, goals from Ethan Byrne and Braydon Beahm 1:12 apart early in the third extended the Green Knights' lead to 4-1.
Less than two minutes after Beahm's goal made it 4-1, Leahy drove to the next from the right and scored after sophomore
Connor Jensen got the puck up the ice to the senior, leading to Leahy's first goal of the season. Still down by two goals late, the Oles got sophomore
Ryan Nolan off the ice with 2:29 to go but could not chip away at the deficit any further.
St. Olaf held a slender 26-25 advantage in shots and killed off the lone penalty it committed in the loss. Nolan made 19 of his 21 saves over the first two periods, while St. Norbert's Hunter Garvey had 12 of his 24 stops in the final 20 minutes.
The two teams will complete their non-conference series with a 4 p.m. puck drop on Saturday, Nov. 7 back at St. Olaf Ice Arena on a day where the Oles will recognize the 2006 Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) championship team.
