ABOVE: Fairmont's Klay Beemer chases down a Minnesota River puck carrier down in a Big South Conference hockey game Monday night at Martin County Arena.

FAIRMONT – The Fairmont Cardinals showcased a high-flying offense in their 7-4 loss to the Minnesota River Bulldogs Monday night. Despite the loss, a Gavin Kester hat trick and Kaden Olson’s 54 saves were highlights of the night for the Cardinals.

“Very, very tiring. That’s all I can say,” said Olson. “I mean, it wasn’t as stressful for some reason. Maybe I was just dialed in. I was in the game. I was focused. So that’s probably a big factor of it. But other than that I wasn’t entirely stressed.”

Despite the scoreboard, Cardinals head coach Dylan VanBrocklin praised his team’s performance on the ice, citing getting on the board early and Olson’s game in the net.

“We battled. It was nice to get on the board right away,” said VanBrocklin. “I think it was Gavin who was saying they got that goal, and they believed. Now we just have to get them to believe without scoring that goal and then Caden played amazing. I think that’s the first game that anyone’s had this year where any of our goalies have had above a 90% save percentage.”

The first period was a battle in the corners. Each team went back and forth exchanging possessions until Kester cleaned up his own rebound and tucked one home with 14:33 left on the clock. Just under a minute later, a wrist shot off the stick of the Bulldogs’ Maxwell Hollerich from the blue line found its way into the net. The Bulldogs were able to strike again with 9:56 left on the clock, this time the goal was scored by Eian O’Keefe. There was 6:38 left in the opening frame when Preston Cepress connected with Kester on a feed out in front of the net that he launched past the goalkeeper, bringing things level 2-2.

Fairmont had an opportunity on the man advantage but were unable to convert. Upon the release of the penalty, Kester found the net again for his hat-trick goal, putting the Cardinals up 3-2. The Bulldogs weren’t done just yet, scoring again with 15 seconds left in the period on a wrist shot from the right circle by Ryker Rehm to tie things up 3-3 headed into the intermission.

The second period is when the teams had managed to figure out what the other was doing, but a roughing penalty would bring out the Bulldogs’ power-play unit. Despite being a man down, a pass from Kester allowed Cepress to break away and draw the goaltender out of position for the go-ahead goal, putting the Cardinals up 4-3. A late penalty by the Cardinals gave the Bulldogs the man advantage and they leveled the score with just over a minute left in the period.

The Bulldogs scored early in the third, retaking the lead 5-4. Penalties were a factor in the remaining time and set up the power-play goal scored by Rehm. As the period progressed, the Cardinals slowed the scoring of the Bulldogs, but it was an empty net goal by O’Keefe that brought the game to a close with the Bulldogs up 7-4.

The Cardinals (0-22) will host Redwood Valley for their final home game of the season at 7 p.m. on Thursday.