St. Norbert Drops Post-Season Opener

From Sports Information Director, February 24, 2012 | Women's Hockey
by Dan Lukes, dan.lukes@snc.edu, (920) 403-4077

SUPERIOR - St. Norbert College couldn't dig out of an early hole and dropped a 5-2 decision to UW-Superior in the first game of a Northern Collegiate Hockey Association O'Brien Cup Playoffs quarterfinals series at Wessman Arena.

The Green Knights (13-13) need to top the Yellowjackets (16-7-3) in Saturday's second game and then win a 20-minute mini-game following the regular game to advance to the O'Brien Cup Final Four.

Superior took command early, taking a 3-0 lead after the first period despite putting only four shots on goal. Dani Schultz, Kiara DeKezel and Ashlee Olson all scored for the Yellowjackets in the first period.

Lotta Haarala scored a power-play goal at the 10:16 mark of the second period to bring the Green Knights to within 3-1. Schultz answered with her 23rd goal of the year at 14:26 to make it 4-1, but St. Norbert's Tara Frey scored 22 seconds later to cut into the deficit. Kaiti Graham iced the win with a goal at 17:02 of the second period for the Yellowjackets.

St. Norbert outshot Superior 23-20, but the Yellowjackets' Shanely Peters made 21 saves to get the win. Katie Aluia made one save in the start for St. Norbert, with Kaley Gibson making 14 saves in relief. St. Norbert was 1-for-5 on the power play, while Superior was 1-for-4.