Men's Hockey 2/23/07 -- Augsburg 6, Hamline 3 

BOXSCORE
 
ST. PAUL, Minn. (2/23/07) -- Brett Way (So., Grand Ledge, Mich.) scored two goals and added an assist for a three-point night, leading the Augsburg College men's hockey team to a 6-3 victory over host Hamline University in a Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference contest on Friday night at the Drake Ice Arena.

A.J. Hau (Fr., Fort Collins, Colo.) also had a three-point night, with a goal and two assists for the Auggies, now 11-9-4 overall, 8-3-4 in MIAC play. Augsburg, which clinched a spot in the five-team MIAC postseason playoffs last weekend, has won six of its last seven games.

With the win, Augsburg moved into a third-place tie with St. Olaf (10-12-2 overall, 9-4-2 MIAC), which topped conference-leader Bethel (14-9-1 overall, 11-3-1 MIAC, 23 points) 4-3 on Friday in Northfield. Both the Auggies and Oles have 20 league points. Augsburg and St. Olaf tied in both meetings this season.

St. Thomas (15-9-0 overall, 11-4-0 MIAC), which beat St. Mary's 6-4 on Friday in Winona, now has 22 league points and is in second place in the league standings. Gustavus (11-12-2 overall, 9-6-1 MIAC, 19 points) is idle this weekend and will be in the No. 5 spot in the playoffs.

Augsburg and Hamline (7-17-0 overall, 3-12-0 MIAC) complete the regular season on Saturday (2/24) at 7:05 p.m. at the Augsburg Ice Arena.

Augsburg scored the first three goals of the game and built a 5-1 lead before the Pipers scored twice in the final stanza. Augsburg outshot Hamline by a 31-26 margin, including a 23-15 edge through the first two periods.

After a scoreless first period, the Auggies scored four goals in the second period. Hau opened the scoring with a power-play goal from Way and Shawn Bakke (Sr., New Hope, Minn./Robbinsdale Armstrong HS), then assisted on the next two goals -- a goal from Aaron Johnson * (Sr., Plymouth, Minn./Robbinsdale Armstrong HS) at the 13:42 mark and a power-play goal by Bakke at the 14:02 mark. Dan Leopold (Jr., Afton, Minn./Stillwater HS) also assisted on Bakke's goal.

Hamline scored at the 17:23 mark, as Dustin Fulton scored from Kyle Kurr and Steve Festler, but Augsburg scored at the 18:45 mark, as Way scored from Greg May (Sr., Burnsville, Minn.).

Way scored again at the 1:25 mark of the third period, assisted by Critter Nagurski * (Sr., International Falls, Minn.) and Chris Kopelke (Fr., Shoreview, Minn./Mounds View HS). Jake Bergquist scored for Hamline, from Alex Gruetzmacher and Cory Krogen, at the 3:03 mark.

Tom Doyle (Sr., St. Paul, Minn./Como Park HS) scored for Augsburg at the 12:14 mark, assisted by May and Jacob Smith (Jr., Hermantown, Minn.). The Pipers' final score came from Michael McDonough at the 15:43 mark, assisted by Jim Erickson.

Andy Kent (So., Lakeville, Minn.) collected 23 saves in goal to score the win for the Auggies, while Matt Wanvig took the loss for the Pipers, with 25 saves in goal.