Hobart College junior Mac Olson (Grosse Pointe, Mich.) scored two third period goals to lead the No. 15 Statesmen to a 2-1 ECAC West victory at Nazareth tonight. With the win, Hobart improves to 12-6-0 overall and 5-3-0 in the conference.
Nazareth falls to 8-7-3 and 4-2-2 in ECAC West play. The Statesmen rebounded from a 7-2 loss to the Golden Flyers yesterday and completed their three regular season meetings with Nazareth, coming out on top with a 2-1-0 record.
The teams played through two scoreless periods before Olson gave Hobart a 1-0 lead with 6:40 left in the third period. His sixth goal of the year came off assists from sophomore Nick Bingaman (Paradise Valley, Ariz.) and senior Tommaso Traversa (Torino, Italy). With 2:29 left, Olson struck again, this time on a Statesmen power play to make it 2-0. Don Oliveri put Nazareth on the board with 1:30 remaining. He scored on 6-on-4, after a Hobart penalty and after Nazareth pulled goalie Ed Zdolshek for an extra skater. Ben Blasko earned the assist on the Golden Flyers’ lone goal.
Zdolshek finished with 28 saves in 58:41between the pipes for Nazareth. First-year Frank Oplinger (Sewickley, Pa.) played all 60 minutes in goal for Hobart and made 33 saves. The Golden Flyers finished with a 34-30 edge in shots. The Statesmen went 1-for-3 on the power play, while Nazareth finished 1-for-5.
Hobart will be back in action next weekend when it hosts two ECAC West games against Neumann. The Statesmen take on the Knights on Friday, Jan. 30, at 7:30 p.m. and then again on Saturday, Jan. 31 at 7:30 p.m. in The Cooler.
