LOS ANGELES – Jackson Painter collected his ninth hat trick of the season, but USC pulled away in the second half and the No. 4 Trojans beat No. 3 Stanford, 10-6, to snap the Cardinal's four-game win streak on Saturday afternoon.
The penultimate regular-season game for the Cardinal was tied at the half, 4-4, thanks to two first-half scores from Painter and one each from Christopher Arakelian and Alex Gheorghe. The Trojans were up two after Max Miller converted in the 6-on-5 with 2:55 on the clock in the second quarter before Gheorghe was good on the power play on Stanford's next possession and Painter scored at even strength with 15 seconds before the break.
But in the second half, USC scored three times in the third quarter and Stanford didn't break through until midway through the fourth when Painter converted a penalty with 5:12 remaining. Painter's third made it 7-5, as close as the Cardinal would get. The Trojans scored two more, one penalty and another natural goal, to go up four with 45 seconds left.
Riley Pittman rattled the cage for Stanford's final tally with 34 seconds on the clock and USC's Andrej Grgurevic did the same with 10 ticks left.
Grgurevic matched Painter with three scores and Carson Kranz and Max Miller had two apiece for the Trojans.
Griffen Price made eight saves in the cage for the Cardinal and Bernardo Herzer had 15 stops for USC.
Stanford closes out its regular season next Saturday, Nov. 11 at California at 10 a.m. on Pac-12 Bay Area.
