Champions! Men's hockey clinches MIAC title with win over UST

Mike Ludwig
February 14, 2009

MENDOTA HEIGHTS, Minn. - St. Olaf clinched its first MIAC regular season men's hockey championship in 70 years with a 4-2 win over host St. Thomas on Saturday night.

The 15th-ranked Oles (15-6-2, 11-1-2 MIAC) raced to a 3-0 first period lead and held on for the win behind a 32-save effort from goaltender Nick Krauss and Britton Smith's goal and assist.

Smith's goal gave St. Olaf a 4-0 lead at 2:18 of the second. His assist came near the end of the first period on Derek Grogan's tally which made it 3-0.

UST scored a pair of power-play goals in the third to cut the lead to 4-2, but Krauss made ten saves in the final 20 minutes to seal the win.

The MIAC regular season championship is the school's first since the 1938-39 season.

MIAC Playoffs
With the victory St. Olaf also clinches a bye and home ice for the MIAC Playoffs, which run Feb. 26 - March 4. The Oles will host the winner of the Feb. 26 #4/#5 play-in game on Saturday, Feb. 28 at 8 p.m.

St. Olaf Notes
- Charlie Raskob's score got the Oles on the board at the 5:04 mark of the first. Just over four minutes later, Sam Windsor scored on a pass from Nick Stalock to make it 2-0.

- The Oles' 15 wins tie for the most all-time matching the efforts of the 1989-90 and 1990-91 teams, which each went 15-9-1 overall.

- St. Olaf won a conference playoff title in 2006 when, as the third seed, the Oles won a 5-1 championship game at top-seeded St. Thomas.

- The Oles' three points against UST in a two-game regular season series the most all-time.

- St. Olaf becomes the fifth different MIAC men's hockey champion in the last five years. St. John's, St. Thomas, Bethel and Hamline had won the previous four titles.

- The Oles will play Augsburg in the final regular season series next weekend. The teams will meet at Northfield Ice Arena on Friday night at 7 p.m.

Contact media relations specialist Mike Ludwig at (507) 786-3834 or ludwigm@stolaf.edu.