St. Norbert Finishes Sweep of MSOE

From Sports Information Director, January 3, 2009 | Men's Hockey
by Dan Lukes, dan.lukes@snc.edu, (920) 403-4077

MILWAUKEE - St. Norbert College capped off a home-and-home series sweep of the Milwaukee School of Engineering with a 7-2 win at the Kern Center.

The Green Knights, ranked 4th in the USCHO.com Poll, improved to 12-3 on the season. MSOE, which lost 3-0 to St. Norbert on Friday night, dropped to 4-7-1.

St. Norbert jumped out to a 2-0 lead after the first period. Shane Wheeler scored his seventh goal of the year 13 minutes 40 seconds into the game, and A.J. Gale scored with 34 seconds left in the period. Both goals were power-play scores.

The Raiders halved the deficit just nine seconds into the second period when Steve Smiddy's shot tricked over the goal line. The Green Knights scored three goals in the next six minutes to take command of the game. Gale scored at 1:58 and Ryan Petersen at 5:22 for a 4-1 lead. Dustin Walz scored his first collegiate goal at 6:32. Nick Tabisz's fifth goal of the year came at 10:30 to chase goaltender Conner Toomey.

MSOE scored the first goal of the third period on a score by Ben Plocar at 5:15. Gale scored at 6:43 for his first collegiate hat trick to round out the scoring. Gale now has 13 goals on the season.

Gale had a four-point night for the Green Knights, adding an assist. Tabisz added a pair of assists for a three-point evening, while Shane Wheeler had a two-point game.

St. Norbert outshot MSOE 37-16 and was 2-for-4 on the power play. MSOE was 0-for-9 on the power play.

Blake Bashor had 14 saves for the Green Knights. Toomey had 20 saves in 30:30 of work, while Chris Keller had 10 saves in 29:30 of relief.