Box Score Seniors do more than just lead of the ice. When push comes to shove, they do it on the ice as well. 

Charlie Adams and Brandon Zurn did just that Friday as Hamline;s men;s team took a shootout victory over Gustavus Adolphus in St. Peter and inched closer to a MIAC playoff spot.

Officially, the game went into the books as a 1-1 tie -- the fourth straight time these teams have deadlocked after 65 minutes of play. Adams' third period marker offset a GAC goal earlier in the frame. 

That led to  the shootout and Zurn turned out to be the only marksman to find his target. As a result, Hamline got two points to the Gusties' one and moved into a three-way tie with St. Mary's and St. Olaf for fifth place - the final MIAC playoff spot. All three teams have 19 points and the Gusties are just one behind with 18.

This means that Saturday's rematch with the Gusties in the season finale at Oscar Johnson will have all the pressure of a championship match. 

It breaks out this way. You get three points for a win in regulation or overtime and two points for a shootout win. St. Mary's has concluded its season and will not make the playoffs. St. Olaf plays at St. Thomas Saturday night. The Tommies won Friday, 6-1, in Northfield. They are trying to hold off St. John's for second place and home ice for at least one round of the postseason. (UST currently leads by one point.) 

The Pipers need to get at least two points Saturday in their head-to-head matchup with Gustavus. An outright win would give them the playoff spot because they hold the tiebreaking edge on St. Olaf. A shootout win would push them past Gustavus and they would need St. Thomas to at least get to a shootout to get them in. 

However, should HU lose a shootout and revert to a tie with Gustavus (each team would then have 20 points), HU would be eliminated because Gustavus owns the tiebreaker between the two teams by virtue of a tie against league champ Augsburg. (HU lost twice).

Bottom line: win the game Saturday and Hamline is in. 

They had to really scrape to get to this spot. After being outshot 7-6 in the first period, HU blistered GAC with a 13-3 edge in the second. But neither team had a goal. GAC struck first at 1:47 of the third but Adams took a pass from Zurn and tied matters with his 20th of the season at 3:52. Despite numerous chances in the rest of the period and the five-minute overtime, neither goalie -- Justin Quale for Hamline and Erik Johnson for Gustavus -- would yield. 

That led us to to the shootout. All three Gustavus players were thwarted by Quale. Kevin Novakovich and Adams met the same fate but Zurn (22) connected and, by that slimmest of margins, Hamline walked away with the smiles for the night. 

So now it comes to one game for the season -- at Oscar Johnson Saturday at 7:00 p.m. Is anybody really surprised?