Green Knights Roll En Route to Series Sweep of Foresters

From Sports Information Director, November 7, 2015 | Men's Hockey
by Dan Lukes, dan.lukes@snc.edu, (920) 403-4077

LAKE FOREST, Ill. - St. Norbert College took command early and rolled to an impressive 8-2 win over Lake Forest College in a Northern Collegiate Hockey Association game at Alumni Memorial Fieldhouse.

The Green Knights (3-1, 3-1 NCHA) scored four goals in the first 16 minutes 20 seconds of the game to jump out to a big lead and sweep the two-game home-and-home series.

Alfred Johansson scored his first goal in a St. Norbert uniform with a goal at the 10:17 mark of the first period. Michael Hill added a marker just 15 seconds later for a 2-0 lead. Erik Cooper then put the Green Knights up 3-0 when he scored a shorthanded goal just 12 seconds into a Lake Forest power play. Pijus Rulevicius added a power-play goal at 16:20 for a 4-0 lead.

The Foresters cut into their deficit with a goal by Ian Pichel at 4:26 of the second period, but Tyler Zepeda answered at 5:46. Connor Bradshaw's goal at 7:21 chased Lake Forest goaltender Leo Podolsky, the reigning NCHA Player of the Year.

Lake Forest's Jack Lewis scored at 9:33 to bring the Foresters to within 6-2, but Brad Pung's power-play goal for his first collegiate goal came at 19:01 for a 7-2 edge after 40 minutes.

St. Norbert's Riley Christensen scored his first collegiate goal at the 6:20 mark of the third period, the only goal during the final 20 minutes of action.

Zepeda and Pung both had two assists to give each a three-point game. Blake Thompson had two assists, while Christensen, Cooper and Bradshaw also added an assist for multi-point games.

St. Norbert outshot Lake Forest 38-18. Tony Kujava made 16 saves for the Green Knights. Podolsky made 18 saves in 27:21 of work, while Billy Cooper made 12 stops in relief for the Foresters.

St. Norbert was 2-for-4 on the power play, while Lake Forest was 0-for-2.