ASHLAND, Wis. -- The Lawrence University men's hockey got off to a strong start Saturday and finished strong as well in a 5-3 nonconference victory over Northland College at the Bay Area Civic Center.
    Lawrence scored twice in the opening period to take control and then sealed the victory with two goals in the opening five minutes of the third period.
    Nolan Mahaffey picked up the win in his first game in goal for the Vikings. Mahaffey made 27 saves in the victory. Andrew Yocum made 36 saves for the Lumberjacks, who were outshot 41-30 by the Vikings.
    Lawrence jumped on the board with 8:40 left in the opening period when Brendan Vettraino scored off assists from Cody Brekke and Akhmed Malsagov for a 1-0 lead. The Vikings made it 2-0 with 2:26 left in the first when Jack Michels scored with assists going to rookies Max Breon and Miles McCue.
    Northland trimmed the lead to 2-1 at the 4:33 mark of the second, but the Vikings scored just 42 seconds later. 
    Rookie Ethan Beaumont scored on the power play with assists going to Cole Schneider and McCue at the 5:15 mark to push the lead back to 3-1.Northland scored with 1:23 left in the second period to trim the margin to 3-2 after two periods.
    Lawrence answered early in the third with a pair of goals. Oliver DeCroock scored at the 1:49 mark for a 4-2 lead, and Cory Checco then got a power-play goal at the 4:34 mark to push the advantage to 5-2. 
    Lawrence was 2-for-8 on the power play, and Northland finished 1-for-6.