Green Knights Drop Heartbreaker to UW-River Falls

From Sports Information Director, January 27, 2012 | Men's Hockey
by Dan Lukes, dan.lukes@snc.edu, (920) 403-4077

GREEN BAY - St. Norbert College saw a late lead evaporate in the closing moments of a 4-3 overtime loss to UW-River Falls in a key Northern Collegiate Hockey Association game at the Cornerstone Community Center.

The Green Knights allowed an extra-attacker goal with 23 seconds remaining in regulation and the gave up an overtime breakaway 2 minutes 59 seconds into the extra period to lose to River Falls for the first time ever at the Cornerstone, a stretch of 19 games. St. Norbert (11-5-4, 8-4-1 NCHA) still holds a one-point lead on River Falls (13-5-2, 7-4-2) and St. Scholastica for first place in the NCHA with five games remaining in the regular season.

St. Norbert held a 3-2 lead late when Jeff Burke's extra-attacker shot from out high trickled past St. Norbert goaltender David Jacobson. The Falcons then killed off a St. Norbert power play in overtime and got Brossman to finish a one-timer on a 2-on-1 breakaway to end the game.

The Green Knights trailed 2-1 entering the third period before rallying to take the lead. Reid Campbell's shot from the high slot at 2:15 of the third knotted the game. Joe Perry then took a faceoff from Brandon Hoogenboom and buried the feed at the 12:45 mark.

St. Norbert had a power-play opportunity with 4:10 left in the third period but couldn't ice the game. The Green Knights couldn't quite clear the zone and River Falls was able to tie the game on Burke's drive.

River Falls opened the scoring at 10:17 of the first on a power-play goal by Willie Hess. Cody Keefer then tied the game at 2:17 of the second period with a power-play marker. The Falcons' second goal came by Adam Cardwell at 6:48.

St. Norbert outshot River Falls 31-30. River Falls was 1-for-3 on the power play, while St. Norbert was 1-5. Jacobson made 26 saves for St. Norbert, while Scott Lewan made 28 stops for the Falcons. Both goaltenders made several solid saves throughout the contest.