MENDOTA HEIGHTS, Minn.-- The Augsburg University men's hockey team nearly came back from a 3-1, first-period deficit, but was unable to rally past the host University of St. Thomas, who claimed a series sweep with a 5-4 Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference win on Saturday evening.

THE BASICS
FINAL SCORE: St. Thomas 5, Augsburg 4
LOCATION: St. Thomas Ice Arena, Mendota Heights, Minn.
RECORDS: Augsburg 8-2-0 overall (4-2-0 MIAC), St. Thomas 5-3-1 overall (2-1-1 MIAC)

HOW IT HAPPENED
• Drew Anderson (SR, Rochester, Minn./Century HS) scored Augsburg's first two goals, both first-period tallies. He scored on the power play from Luke Dietsch (JR, St. Paul, Minn./Cretin-Derham Hall HS) and Nate Flynn (SR, Hastings, Minn./Hastings HS) at the 8:44 mark, then cut the Tommie lead to 4-2 with a power-play goal from Eric Brenk (JR, Moorhead, Minn./Moorhead HS) and Max Pernhem (SR, Stockholm, Sweden/Dragonskolan) at the 16:45 mark.
• St. Thomas scored twice more, but Augsburg answered each time. Lukas Gillett (JR, Rosemount, Minn./Rosemount HS) scored from Brenk and Gunnar Goodmanson (FY, Buffalo, Minn./Buffalo HS) at the 5:43 mark of the second period, and Flynn scored from John O'Connor (SO, Moorhead, Minn./Moorhead HS) at the 15:12 mark of the third period.
• Augsburg held a 41-22 advantage in shots on-goal, including a 16-5 advantage in the third period. Pernhem and Alex Rodriguez (JR, Miami, Fla./Shattuck-St. Mary's (Minn.) HS) had six shots each.
• Nick Schmit (JR, Fargo, N.D./Fargo North HS) had 33 saves in goal for the Auggies.
• Augsburg entered the weekend ranked No. 3 in the USCHO.com Division III national poll and No. 4 in the D3hockey.com national poll.

FOR THE FOES
• Benjamin Myers collected 37 saves in goal to pick up the victory in goal for the Tommies.
• Cullen Willox scored twice in the first period for St. Thomas, while Tanner Barnes had a goal and three assists. Jake Ahlgren and Johnny Panvica also scored goals for the Tommies.

UP NEXT
• Augsburg travels to face top-ranked St. Norbert (Wis.) in a nonconference series next Friday (12/8) at 7 p.m. and next Saturday (12/9) at 4 p.m., in Ashwaubenon, Wis.
• St. Thomas hosts Finlandia (Mich.) next Friday at 7:30 p.m.