WINONA, Minn. – The St. Olaf College men's hockey team scored three third-period goals to record a 4-3 come-from-behind victory over Saint Mary's University to open the teams' Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) series on Friday night at Saint Mary's Ice Arena.

After trailing 2-1 after two periods, St. Olaf (11-6-5, 7-4-2 MIAC) scored twice in the span of four-plus minutes midway through the third to take a 3-2 lead, but Saint Mary's (12-8-2, 8-4-1 MIAC), which entered the night in first place in the conference, tied it up with 4:32 to go. First year Hunter Hayes gave the Oles the maximum of three points by tallying the game-winning goal with 1:34 remaining.

With the win, St. Olaf maintained its grip on fourth place in the MIAC standings, one point ahead of Bethel University, which also got three points with a win at Concordia-Moorhead on Friday night. The Oles have a six-point lead over the sixth-place Cobbers with three games remaining and closed the gap on Saint Mary's to three points ahead of the series finale on Saturday.

St. Olaf got on the board first at 3:21 of the first period when sophomore Panayioti Efraimidis tipped in a shot by junior Bjorn Lervick for Efraimidis' fifth goal of the season. Saint Mary's responded midway through the period with a goal by Jack Campion as the teams went into the first intermission tied at 1-1.

Luc Cernohous gave the Cardinals their only lead of the night at 5:21 of the second period, a lead that the hosts took into the second intermission. Junior Tony Leahy tied the game for St. Olaf at 8:18 of the third period with his fourth goal of the season after junior Tyler Green intercepted a pass and fed the puck to Leahy behind the Saint Mary's defensemen.

Less than five minutes after Leahy's goal, senior Jonathan Panisa gave the Oles their second lead of the night with his team-leading 11th goal of the season by firing the puck home after Hayes fed him the puck. Saint Mary's created the third tie of the game less than three minutes later when Reid Watson turned the puck in with his skate with 4:32 to go.

St. Olaf avoided its ninth overtime game of the season and picked up all three points after Hayes recorded his seventh goal of the season inside the final two minutes. Panisa set up the goal by collecting the puck in his own defensive zone, skating into the offensive zone, and passing the puck to Hayes, who scored with a wrist shot from between the circles.

Saint Mary's got its goaltender off the ice for the final 32 seconds but was unable to get the puck into its offensive end of the ice. Sophomore Matthew Malin improved to 6-1-3 in 10 starts this season with a 23-save performance for St. Olaf, which outshot Saint Mary's by a 43-26 margin. Adam Prokop had 31 of his 39 saves over the first two periods for the Cardinals.

St. Olaf will go for the sweep in a 5 p.m. puck drop at St. Olaf Ice Arena on Saturday, Feb. 14.