The St. Olaf men's hockey team lost 2-1 to UW-Superior in the first round of the NCAA Division III Championships Wednesday night in Superior, Wis.

UW-Superior's Seth Reda broke a scoreless tie with a rebound goal at the 8:39 mark of the third, and Nate Rein gave the Yellowjackets a 2-0 lead with 2:45 to play.

Joel Ihrie (Sr., Woodinville, Wash.) scored 30 seconds later to cut the lead to 2-1 for the Oles, who made their first appearance in the NCAA Touranment in school history in the loss. John Egge (Jr., Wisconsin Rapids, Wis.) and Casey Dynan (FY, Orono, Minn.) assisted on the goal.

Dan Kehler (Sr., Woodbury, Minn.) made 25 saves in the loss for St. Olaf.

I was happy the way guys played ahead of me tonight, said Kehler. We didn't play perfect, but we played hard.

The Oles had just one penalty, but were 0-for-4 on the power play including a five-minute stretch of the second period when UW-Superior's Mike Bickley was given a game misconduct for his checking from behind penalty.

UW-Superior, which held top-ranked St. Norbert to a 1-for-9 night in the NCHA Championship on the power play, has allowed just one goal on their last 16 penalty kills.

The Yellowjackets have gone 6-0-1 in their last seven games and have won five of those games by one goal. They will play at St. Norbert on Saturday in the quarterfinal round of the NCAA Tournament.