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Mens Hockey Earns 3 of 4 Points in Weekend Series

Mark Heinert
January 16, 2001

The St. Olaf Men?s Hockey team returned to MIAC action in full force this past weekend by beating the Cardinals of St. Mary?s University 7-5 on Friday night in Winona and tying 4-4 Saturday night in Northfield.

In the first game, the Oles came flying out of the gate with sophomore forward Nick Hanson?s (Eden Prairie, MN) second goal of the season off of a beautiful feed from first-year forward Dan Norsten (Eagan, MN). St. Mary?s countered back with a goal with 8 minutes remaining, but the Oles responded at 13:01 with senior alternate captain Jeff Simison?s (Moorhead, MN) second goal of the season and the Oles led 2-1 after the first period. In the second period, the Oles continued to put pressure on the Cardinals with 2 goals at 3:31 and 4:15 by senior forward Nate Olsen (Northfield, MN) and senior alternate captain Tim Legreid (Moorhead, MN) to give the Oles a 4-1 lead. St. Mary?s cut the lead to 4-3 moments later with two quick goals at 8:42 and 9:49 of the second. However, the Oles never lost their composure as Norsten scored his first collegiate goal at 13:08. Junior forward Justin Bronce (Eden Prairie, MN) added 2 more tallies before the period was over, scoring at 14:41 off of a rebound shot from junior defenseman Chad Zwerdling (Anoka, MN) and again at 18:52 on a breakaway. When the second period had finally ended, the Oles had scored 5 goals and held a commanding 7-3 lead. St. Mary?s would add two goals late in the game to cut the lead to 7-5, but that?s as far as they would get. St. Olaf was out shot in the game 45-38, but sophomore goaltender Jake Bullard (Bloomington, MN) stopped 40 of 45 shots and made several key saves to give the Oles the victory.

Hoping for the series sweep back in Northfield on Saturday night, the Oles took a 1-0 lead at the 17:10 mark of the first period with sophomore defenseman Brian Meyer?s (Sun Prairie, WI) fourth goal of the season on the power play. Junior forward Brandon Smieja (Lakeville, MN) scored at 3:15 of the second period and Simison tallied his second goal of the weekend at 5:55 to give the Oles a 3-0 lead. However, St. Mary?s would come roaring back scoring 3 goals in a span of 4 minutes during the second period to tie the game at 3-3. Smieja would add his second goal of the game at 17:26 to give a 4-3 lead back to St. Olaf after two periods of play. St. Mary?s would tie the game at 8:09 of the third period and the game went into overtime. During the overtime session, an apparent St. Mary?s goal was waved off and St. Mary?s was assessed a penalty for too many men on the ice after their bench erupted out onto the ice in celebration. St. Olaf had several very good scoring chances during the power play, but could not convert and the game ended in a 4-4 tie. St. Olaf was out shot again 36-33, but superb goaltending by first-year Garret Hasti (St. Louis Park, MN) kept the Oles in the game. Hasti finished the game with 32 saves.

St. Olaf now moves to 4-9-1 (3-4-1 MIAC) on the season. Up next for the Oles is the final non-conference series for the season with games at Milwaukee School of Engineering on Friday and Saturday nights at 7 pm and Lawrence University at 2 pm on Sunday afternoon. The Oles return to MIAC action with a home and home series the following weekend against Bethel College. Friday night?s game will be in Minneapolis and Saturday night?s game will be in Northfield. Both games begin at 7 pm.

Contact Kurt Anderson at 507-786-3315 or anderk@stolaf.edu.