Ryd's Two Goals Leads St. Norbert to Sweep of UW-Stout

From Sports Information Director, October 31, 2009 | Men's Hockey
by Dan Lukes, dan.lukes@snc.edu, (920) 403-4077

MENOMONIE - Johan Ryd scored two goals on his 20th birthday to lead St. Norbert College to a 4-1 win over UW-Stout in a Northern Collegiate Hockey Association game at Dunn County Ice Arena.

Ryd scored the Green Knights' first two markers to lead the squad to their first weekend road sweep in nearly two years. St. Norbert swept Concordia-Moorhead and St. John's on Nov. 10-11, 2007 for its last four-point road weekend.

St. Norbert (3-0, 2-0 NCHA) entered the weekend ranked No. 11 in the USCHO.com Division III Poll. Stout (0-2, 0-2) entered the series ranked third nationally and was the pre-season favorite to win the NCHA championship.

Ryd opened the scoring just 2 minutes 5 seconds into the game off assists from Nick Tabisz and Alain Joanette, a goal that would be the only scoring of the first period.

Stout tied the game 52 seconds into the second period when the Blue Devils' top line tallied a goal, with Derek Hanson scoring off Joel Gaulrapp and Scott Motz assists. Ryd answered almost immediately, scoring 1:45 later off assists from Kyle Stroh and Joanette.

Brandon Longley added a power-play goal for St. Norbert at 15:32 of the second for a 3-1 lead with Mike Bernardy and Scott Pulak assisting. Matt Boyd scored his first goal of the season at 16:11 of the third period with Shane Wheeler and Cody Keefer assisting.

St. Norbert dominated puck possession, holding a commanding 43-17 shots-on-goal advantage. The Green Knights were 1-for-6 on the power play, while the Blue Devils were 0-for-4.

B.J. O'Brien improved to 3-0 on the season with a 16-save performance. Tom Lescovich made 39 saves in taking the loss for the Blue Devils.