The Gustavus Adolphus College hockey team held off a late charge by Lawrence University on Saturday and hung on for a 5-3 nonconference victory over the Vikings at the Appleton Family Ice Center.
Adam Smyth scored four times, including a natural hat trick, to pace Gustavus Adolphus (6-4-2). Lawrence (4-4-3) scored twice in the third period to trim the Gustavus lead to 4-3, but the Gusties got an empty-net goal in the final minutes to seal the win.
Gustavus took the lead just 1:31 into the game, and Lawrence finally tied it at 1-1 on Phil Bushbacher’s goal at the 6:11 mark of the second period.
Smyth then started his scoring barrage with a power-play goal at the 12:46 mark of the second. He made it 3-1 when he scored 59 seconds later. Smyth got the hat trick with another power-play goal at the 15:47 mark to give the Gusties a 4-1 edge.
Bushbacher picked up his second goal of the night when he scored at the 8:04 mark of the third period to cut the lead to 4-2. Patrick Coyne, who had two assists on the afternoon, then scored off a pass from Bushbacher at the 15:43 mark to trim the margin to 4-3.
Lawrence pulled goaltender Peter Emery with 2:00 left, but Smyth picked up an empty-net goal 21 seconds later to seal the victory.
Emery made 24 saves and took the loss. John McLean stopped 28 shots for the Gusties to pick up the win.