WINONA, Minn. -- Zack Olen recorded his first career hat trick on Wednesday to lead the Lawrence University men's hockey team to a 5-1 nonconference victory over Saint Mary's University at the SMU Ice Arena.
    Olen scored twice in the first period and added a third-period score to complete the hat trick. It was the first hat trick for the Vikings since All-American Lane King did it against Concordia Wisconsin on Jan. 6, 2018.
    Lawrence (2-1-0) also got a great performance between the pipes from Brian Tallieu. He stopped 36 shots in his season debut. 
    The Vikings got on the board early as Cory Checco beat Saint Mary's goaltender Matt Sankner just 3:31 into the first period for a 1-0 lead. Olen then scored his first goal of the night at the 11:19 mark of the first when he stuffed home a pass from Davis Kirkendall for a 2-0 lead. Olen pushed the lead to 3-0 when he scored off a pass from Will Robertson with 3:59 remaining in the first.
    That three-goal outburst chased Sankner, who finished with seven saves. A.J. Ruskowski played the remainder of the contest in net for the Cardinals (0-3-0) and had 11 saves.
    Lawrence took the 3-0 lead to the second period and the scored stayed that way until Zach Lodes scored off assists from Hugh Anderson and Oliver DeCrook with 1:07 remaining in the second period.
    Saint Mary's finally got on the board with a power-play goal at the 14:02 mark of the third to cut the lead to 4-1. The Cardinals were 1-for-3 on the power play, and Lawrence was 0-for-2. Olen then completed the hat trick and finished the scoring for the night with a goal off assists from Robertson and Kyle Gierman at the 15:35 mark.