St. Norbert Swept By Bulldogs

From Sports Information Director, January 31, 2015 | Men's Hockey
by Dan Lukes, dan.lukes@snc.edu, (920) 403-4077

ADRIAN, Mich. - St. Norbert College suffered its first road series sweep in nearly 18 years after losing 6-4 to Adrian College in a Northern Collegiate Hockey Association game at Arrington Ice Arena.

The Green Knights (14-4-2, 10-3-1 NCHA) were last swept in a road series by NCAA Division I Alaska-Fairbanks on Feb. 14-15, 1997. St. Norbert hadn't been swept on the road by a Division III team since a pair of losses to UW-River Falls in a NCHA Playoffs semifinal series on Feb. 23-24, 1996. Adrian (15-3-3, 12-1-1) opened up a four-point lead on St. Norbert in the league standings.

St. Norbert had to dig out of an early hole for the second straight game, with Adrian scoring two goals in the first three minutes. Kevin Balas scored a power-play goal at 1:59, followed by Duston Hebebrand's power-play marker at 2:56. Pijus Rulevicius scored a power-play goal at 5:10 to get St. Norbert on the board, but the Bulldogs' Rob Heath answered at 18:35 for a 3-1 lead after one period.

Michael Hill scored a power-play goal at 8:20 to bring St. Norbert to within 3-2, but Adrian again went up by two on a goal by Balas at 11:57. Cullen Bradshaw's power-play goal at 19:19 brought St. Norbert to within 4-3 after two periods.

Adrian pushed ahead by two goals again on a Kyle Brothers goal at 2:51 of the third period. Chris Rial scored at 13:39 of the third period to bring St. Norbert to within 5-4, but Adrian's Josh Ranalli scored an empty-net goal with 52 seconds left to close out the game.

Adrian held a 37-31 shots-on-goal advantage. Scott Shackell made 27 saves for the Bulldogs, while Tony Kujava made 31 stops for St. Norbert. The Green Knights were 3-for-8 on the power play, while the Bulldogs were 2-for-6.