St. Norbert Blows Third-Period Lead to Settle for Wild Tie at UW-River Falls

From Sports Information Director, November 12, 2011 | Men's Hockey
by Dan Lukes, dan.lukes@snc.edu, (920) 403-4077

RIVER FALLS - St. Norbert College held a 4-0 third-period lead but had to rally to post a 5-5 tie with UW-River Falls in a Northern Collegiate Hockey Association game at Hunt Arena.

The Green Knights (3-2-2, 1-2-1 NCHA) had to withstand a furious River Falls (5-0-1, 1-0-1) rally in the third period. The Falcons scored five times in 11 minutes to take a 5-4 lead with 3 minutes 45 seconds remaining. Cody Keefer's power-play goal with 2:27 remaining in regulation brought St. Norbert back to even and salvaged the Green Knights a point on the weekend.

St. Norbert took a 2-0 lead in the first period. Seth Soley scored at the 6:55 mark of the first, followed by Sam Dougherty's first collegiate goal at 11:33. The Green Knights boosted their lead to 3-0 in the second period on Joe Perry's goal at 18:58.

Kyle Stroh put the Green Knights ahead 4-0 just 1:44 into the third period, but from there the momentum would change dramatically. Geoff Shewmake scored a power-play goal at 5:02, followed by an even-strength marker by Blake Huppert at 8:33.

Ben Beaudoin shaved the River Falls deficit down to 4-3 with a power-play goal at the 10:43 mark. Willie Hess then scored the equalizer at 14:28. The Falcons pumped in another power-play goal by Huppert to finish off the barrage at 16:15. It marked the first time since Feb. 4, 1996 that St. Norbert had allowed five goals in one period.

Keefer's goal forced overtime. St. Norbert had a power-play opportunity in the overtime but couldn't convert and had to settle for the stalemate.

St. Norbert outshot River Falls 40-37, with 20 of those shots coming in the first period. Mike Martin made 32 saves for the Green Knights, while Scott Lewan made 35 saves for the Falcons. St. Norbert was 1-for-7 on the power play, while the Falcons were 3-for-5.