St. Norbert Clinches 12th NCHA Regular-Season Championship

From Sports Information Director, February 4, 2011 | Men's Hockey
by Dan Lukes, dan.lukes@snc.edu, (920) 403-4077

GREEN BAY - St. Norbert College clinched its 12th Northern Collegiate Hockey Association regular-season championship in the last 15 years with a solid 3-0 win over UW-Superior at the Cornerstone Community Center.

The Green Knights, who are ranked No. 2 in the USCHO.com Division III Poll, have also won nine league titles in the last 10 seasons. St. Norbert is now 18-3-1 overall and 12-2-1 in the NCHA and has also locked up the No. 1 seeding in the NCHA Peters Cup Playoffs. Superior dropped to 12-9-1, 9-6. It was the Yellowjackets' third consecutive shutout loss.

Following a scoreless first period, St. Norbert took command with a pair of goals in the second period. Joe Perry scored 6 minutes 1 second into the period knocking home a rebound. Adam Hammerbeck then scored his first goal of the year when he pushed in a loose puck at the 12:35 mark.

St. Norbert put the game away at 13:13 of the third period, when Cody Keefer completed a pretty passing combination from feeds from Mike Bernardy and Brandon Longley for a power-play score.

Bernardy finished with two assists, while Perry added a helper on Hammerbeck's goal for a two-point night.

St. Norbert outshot Superior 33-19, and the Yellowjackets did not have a high-quality scoring chance in the entire game. B.J. O'Brien made all 19 stops for St. Norbert. Drew Strandberg, who has not gotten any scoring support in his last three outings, made 30 saves.

The Green Knights were 1-for-3 on the power play while the Yellowjackets were 0-for-3.