BOXSCORE

MINNEAPOLIS -- Wesley Waytashek (SO, Little Falls, Minn.) scored his first collegiate goal, and Trevor Doden (SR, Red Wing, Minn.) scored a goal and an assist, as Augsburg College rallied for a 5-3 victory over Bethel University in a Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference men's hockey game on Friday evening at Ed Saugestad Rink.

Trailing 2-0 late in the first period, Augsburg (9-12-1 overall, 5-7-1 MIAC) scored five straight goals -- including two power-play goals and a penalty shot -- to claim the victory over Bethel (6-14-2 overall, 4-7-2 MIAC) in the opener of a key series, with both teams in pursuit of a spot in the five-team MIAC postseason playoffs.

Augsburg is now tied with Concordia with 11 league points (two points for a win, one for a tie), trailing two teams tied for fourth place with 14 points -- Gustavus and St. Olaf. There is just a six-point separation from second to eighth places, with three league games remaining for every conference team but Hamline.

The Royals struck first, as Jake Kogler (SR, Forest Lake, Minn.) scored from Tyler Sorensen (SO, Madison, Wis.) and Austin Hatch (SR, Cloquet, Minn.) at the 10:30 mark of the first period, and Sorensen scored an unassisted goal at the 17:40 mark.

But the Auggies started their comeback just 12 seconds after Sorensen's goal. Niklas Almstrom (SO, Medina, Minn./Benilde-St. Margaret's HS) scored from John Lennartson (SR, Burnsville, Minn.) at the 17:52 mark.

The Auggies scored three goals in the second period, as Waytashek scored his first collegiate goal at the 3:35 mark, fed by Erik Ordahl (SO, Rochester, Minn./Century HS) and Tim Serratore (SO, Colorado Springs, Colo./Pine Creek HS), and Doden scored his team-leading 14th goal of the season, assisted by Lennartson and Landon Olson (JR, Alexandria, Minn./Duluth Marshall HS), on the power play at the 5:26 mark. Doden's 14 goals are currently tied for the lead among MIAC players in overall statistics, according to the Collegehockeystats.net website.

#B.J. McClellan# (SO, Cottage Grove, Minn./Cretin-Derham Hall HS) gave the Auggies a 4-2 lead at the 16:13 mark, scoring on a penalty shot goal -- Augsburg's first penalty shot goal of the season.

Augsburg took a 5-2 lead on a power-play goal by David Hines (SR, Sartell, Minn./St. Cloud Tech HS), assisted by Doden, at the 9:54 mark of the third period. Jack Paul (JR, Minnetonka, Minn.) scored from Kogler and Chris Fiala (SR, White Bear Lake, Minn.) for the Royals at the 14:06 mark to complete the scoring.

Augsburg outshot Bethel by a 37-27 mark. Justin Lochner (JR, Sauk Rapids, Minn./Sauk Rapids-Rice HS) had 24 saves in goal for the Auggies, while Robby Brown (FY, Brattelboro, Vt.) had 32 saves for the Royals.

The teams complete the series on Saturday (2/11) at 7 p.m. at the Schwan Super Rink in Blaine, Minn.