Gusties hold on to down Lawrence

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.

Box score