The St. Olaf men’s hockey team traveled across the state border for a pair of games over the weekend. The Oles were looking for their first win of the season, but unfortunately returned home after suffering two losses.
On Friday, Nov. 8, St. Olaf played away against University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and found themselves right in the contest early on. The Oles responded twice after conceding goals in the first period, with scores from Dan Cecka ’14 and Bryan Glynn ’14, respectively, levelling the contest.
After falling behind 0-1 early, Cecka scored an unassisted goal at 6:54 in the first period. Glynn found the net with 10:27 left in the second period to tie the game at 2-2. His goal was assisted by Dylan Porter ’14 and Cecka.
Unfortunately for St. Olaf, that was as close as they got for the rest of the night, with UW-Eau Claire scoring three more times – the final goal coming with 39 seconds left in regulation time – to close out a 5-2 victory.
St. Olaf then faced the strong University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point on the following evening. The Oles were still in search of an elusive first win for the season. The encounter proved to be tougher than that of the previous night, with the Oles suffering a crushing 1-8 loss.
Joe Kalisz and Kyle Brodie each scored two goals for UW-Stevens Point. The Pointers are off to their best start since 2008-2009 and boast the nation’s leading offense.
Alex Brooks had three assists for UW-Stevens Point. He was one of four Pointers that had at least two assists in the victory. Cecka had the Oles’ only goal. He scored on an assist from JT Paine ’17 and Steven Sherman ’17 midway through the third period.
St. Olaf 0-4 will return to action for their first MIAC contest of the season on Nov. 15 against St. John’s University 2-2 at the Northfield Ice Arena. The match-up is also the Johnnies’ first conference game of the season, and both teams will be looking to secure their first MIAC points.