St. Norbert Clinches 13th NCHA Title and Peters Cup Playoffs No. 1 Seeding

From Sports Information Director, February 10, 2012 | Men's Hockey
by Dan Lukes, dan.lukes@snc.edu, (920) 403-4077

GREEN BAY - St. Norbert College used a quick start to lock up the outright Northern Collegiate Hockey Association regular-season championship and claim the No. 1 seeding for the league's Peters Cup Playoffs with a 4-2 win over UW-Stout at the Cornerstone Community Center.

The Green Knights (15-5-5, 12-4-2 NCHA) surged to the league championship behind a 9-1-1 finish to the regular season. St. Norbert has won the NCHA regular-season crown 13 times - extending its league record - with all of the titles coming in the last 16 seasons. Stout fell to 8-15-1, 4-12-1.

St. Norbert got the jump early with two goals in the game's first six minutes. Cullen Bradshaw skated in with a Stout defender in front of him, but a quality deke open a spot to beat Stout goaltender Tom Lescovich at 4:03 for the early lead. The Green Knights later skated out on a 2-on-1 breakaway, and a perfect feed from Kyle Stroh found Cody Keefer, who scored his 12th goal of the year at 5:58. The Green Knights made it 3-0 at 14:09 of the first period when Chris Rial scored a power-play goal.

Stout answered in the second period with two goals and Lescovich saving all 17 shots he faced in the middle 20 minutes. Logan Maly finished a rush at 13:11, while Carl Bombardier did the same at 17:08.

The Green Knights held that lead until the 14:33 mark of the third period, when Joe Perry finished off a crisp tic-tac-toe passing combination on the power play for his eighth marker of the season.

St. Norbert outshot the Blue Devils 43-24. David Jacobson made 22 saves for the Green Knights, while Lescovich turned away 39 shots for the Blue Devils. St. Norbert was 2-for-3 on the power play and was 7-for-12 with the man advantage on the weekend. Stout was 0-for-3 on its power play.