St. Norbert Grinds Past UW-Stevens Point in Big Road Win

From Sports Information Director, January 28, 2010 | Men's Hockey
by Dan Lukes, dan.lukes@snc.edu, (920) 403-4077

STEVENS POINT - St. Norbert College jumped out to an early lead and held on to post a 3-1 win over UW-Stevens Point in a key Northern Collegiate Hockey Association game at K.B. Willett Arena.

The Green Knights, ranked No. 3 in the USCHO.com Division III Poll, improved to 16-3-1 overall and 11-2 in the NCHA. Stevens Point dropped to 9-10-1, 4-9.

St. Norbert grabbed an early 1-0 lead 5 minutes 23 seconds into the game when Kurt Astle scored his first goal in his first game as a Green Knight. Astle took a pretty pass from Noah Nemgar and beat Stevens Point goaltender Nick Graves top-shelf.

The Green Knights improved their led to 2-0 at 2:07 of the second period. Shane Wheeler and Matt Boyd had two crisp passes out of the corner to find an open Tyler Allen, who scored for his 10th goal of the season. The Pointers would cut the deficit to 2-1 when Johnny Meo scored at 15:10 of the second, putting a puck in off the back of St. Norbert goaltender B.J. O'Brien's leg.

St. Norbert would hang on to a 2-1 lead through most of the third period until Johan Ryd stripped Stevens Point's Garrett Suter in the Pointers' defensive end and scored on an unassisted breakaway with 1:44 left to play. It was Ryd's sixth goal of the year.

St. Norbert outshot the Pointers 26-24, and was 0-for-5 on the power play. O'Brien made 23 saves for the Green Knights.

Stevens Point was 0-for-3 on the power play, and Graves made 23 saves.