St. Norbert Battles to Stalemate With St. Scholastica

From Sports Information Director, February 13, 2016 | Men's Hockey
by Dan Lukes, dan.lukes@snc.edu, (920) 403-4077

DULUTH, Minn. - St. Norbert College couldn't find a go-ahead goal in the third period and settled for a 2-2 tie with College of St. Scholastica in a Northern Collegiate Hockey Association game at Mars Lakeview Arena.

The Green Knights (19-2-2, 15-2-1 NCHA) fell into a first-place tie in the overall standings with Adrian College with two games remaining. Should St. Norbert and the Bulldogs remain tied in the standings at the conclusion of regular-season play, the tiebreaker would go to the No. 3 slot in the sequence - goal differential in all league games. Adrian currently has a 19-goal edge on the Green Knights in that criterion.

St. Norbert faces Milwaukee School of Engineering next week in a home-and-home series, while Adrian travels to St. Scholastica - the longest road trip in the NCHA.

All four goals in the game were scored on the power play. The Green Knights converted two of their three chances, while the Saints were 2-for-8 with the man advantage. St. Norbert was shorthanded for 15 minutes 27 seconds in the game.

Justin Krabben put the Saints ahead with the first goal at the 4:08 mark of the first period. St. Norbert responded with a pair of goals later in the frame. Pijus Rulevicius moved into a share of the team lead in goals with 12 with a 4-on-3 power-play goal at 11:36. Erik Cooper then registered a power-play goal at 15:07 for a 2-1 lead.

Cooper's goal marked the 15th consecutive game he has scored a point. Cooper has scored in 22 of St. Norbert's 23 games this season.

Rulevicius added an assist on Cooper's goal for a two-point game.

St. Scholastica scored the eventual game-tying goal at 6:33 of the second period when Derek Sutliffe finished off a power-play chance.

Neither team had a power-play chance in the third period or overtime. There were two 4-on-4 situations in the third period.

St. Scholastica outshot St. Norbert 27-20, including 7-2 in the second period. Tony Kujava made 25 saves for the Green Knights and Tyler Bruggeman made 18 stops for the Saints.