Green Knights Snap Out of Friday Funk to Win at UW-Stout

From Sports Information Director, February 8, 2013 | Men's Hockey
by Dan Lukes, dan.lukes@snc.edu, (920) 403-4077

DE PERE - St. Norbert College won on Friday for the first time in four weeks to post a 4-1 Northern Collegiate Hockey Association win over UW-Stout at the Dunn County Ice Arena.

The Green Knights (18-5-1, 12-4-1), who dropped their Friday game in each of the last three weeks, jumped out to an early 2-0 lead to take control of the game. Carl Ekstrom scored just 1 minute 13 seconds into the game, and Cody Keefer added a marker at the 6:40 mark.

The Green Knights opened up a 3-0 lead at the 10:44 mark of the second period when Chris Rial connected. Stout (10-13-2, 5-13) answered 57 seconds later on a goal by Sam Carr, but Keefer scored his fourth goal in the last two games and his second of the night with a marker at 15:14.

St. Norbert got two assists apiece from Kyle Stroh and Tyler Zepeda.

Stout outshot St. Norbert 29-26, including 26-15 in the last two periods. David Jacobson made 28 saves for the Green Knights, while Nick Hopper had 22 stops for the Blue Devils. St. Norbert was 0-for-2 on the power play, while Stout was 0-for-1.

St. Norbert concludes the regular season at 7 p.m. Saturday at UW-Stevens Point's K.B. Willett Arena. The Green Knights return to the Cornerstone Community Center on Feb. 15-16 in a NCHA Peters Cup Playoffs quarterfinal series against Stout.