St. Norbert Returns Home to Rout Lawrence

From Sports Information Director, December 5, 2015 | Men's Hockey
by Dan Lukes, dan.lukes@snc.edu, (920) 403-4077

DE PERE - St. Norbert College returned to the Cornerstone Community Center from an eight-game road trip in a big way by scoring a season-high nine goals in a 9-1 win over Lawrence University in a Northern Collegiate Hockey Association game.

The Green Knights (10-1-1, 7-1 NCHA) last played at home on Nov. 6 and extended their unbeaten streak to 10, going 9-0-1 during that stretch.

St. Norbert, ranked No. 2 in the USCHO.com Division III Poll, didn't waste much time taking control, scoring two goals in the first 6 minutes 28 seconds of action. Michael Hill scored unassisted at 3:36 and Jake Larson followed with his first collegiate goal at 6:28.

Lawrence (3-7, 2-4) briefly got back into the game with a power-play goal by Renato Engler at the 4:41 mark of the second period, but St. Norbert pulled away later in the frame. Blake Thompson skated down the slot and finished a power-play chance at 12:56 for a 3-1 lead. Riley Christensen scored on a breakaway 4-on-4 goal at 14:30, followed by a Roman Uchyn unassisted score at 15:51 for a 5-1 lead after two periods.

St. Norbert got another goal from Hill at 4:17 of the third period when he finished off a rebound opportunity for his second goal of the game. Pijus Rulevicius scored at 6:26 to push the lead out to 7-1. Tanner Froese scored his first goal of the season at 10:20 on a play set up by Christensen skating his way through several Lawrence defenders. Rulevicius scored a power-play goal at 18:23 to close out the scoring.

Rulevicius had two assists for a three-point game, while Larson had two assists to also gain a three-point outing. Hill finished with two points on his two goals, while Thompson, Uchyn and Christensen all had assists to close with two-point games.

St. Norbert outshot Lawrence 37-13, including a commanding 17-1 in the third period. T.J. Black finished with 12 saves for the Green Knights, while Greg Procopio totaled 11 saves in the first 35:51 of action to take the loss for the Vikings.

The game was marred by 26 penalties, with 14 assessed to Lawrence. St. Norbert finished 2-for-10 on the power play, while Lawrence was 1-for-7.