College hockey is back in Northfield. Fans piled into the Northfield Ice Arena on Friday, Nov. 6 to see the St. Olaf men’s hockey team take on the Pipers of Hamline University.
The first period was fast-paced and physical. The Oles were strong on the forecheck and finished their checks but were unable to score, despite several opportunities. The period remained scoreless until Hamline buried a rebound off of an odd-man rush, with just 28 seconds left in the period.
Hockey is a game of ebbs and flows, and nowhere was that so evident as the second period. The Oles came out on fire to begin the second period, scoring two goals to take a 2-1 lead within the first two minutes. Mark Rath ’16 scored 34 seconds in off of a pass from Ole Setsaas ’16, and just over a minute later Peter Lindblad ’16 followed up with a goal assisted by Steve Sherman ’17 and Chris Hansen ’17.
The Pipers then bounced back, scoring the next three goals and taking a commanding 4-2 lead.
The resilient Oles battled back. With about eight minutes left in the 2nd period, Nick Marsh ’16 won a faceoff and passed to Patrick Sivets ’17, who skated in from the top of the faceoff circle and sent a rocket past the Hamline goaltender, cutting the Pipers’ lead to 4-3. A few minutes later Drew Otto ’18 scored to tie the game, with assists from Matt Kroska ’18 and Justin Plate ’18.
With six minutes left in the second period, the Oles took back their lead with a power-play goal from Sherman, assisted by Lindblad.
Hamline scored the lone goal of the third period to tie up the game and send into a goalless overtime. The final score of regular time was a 5-5 tie, but Hamline won the shootout 2-0, claiming victory over the Oles.
St. Olaf goaltender Luke Andriuk ’18 was a brick wall in the net, making 42 saves during the course of the match.
The Oles remain in Northfield this weekend for back-to-back home games on Friday and Saturday against the University of Wisconsin-Superior and the University of Wisconsin-Stout. Both games are scheduled for a 7:30 p.m. puck-drop.
sander2@stolaf.edu
