St. Norbert Falls Out of First Place at UW-Eau Claire

From Sports Information Director, January 25, 2013 | Men's Hockey
by Dan Lukes, dan.lukes@snc.edu, (920) 403-4077

EAU CLAIRE - St. Norbert College saw its tie for first place in the Northern Collegiate Hockey Association with UW-Eau Claire slip away in a 3-0 loss to the Blugolds in a key league matchup.

A partisan crowd of 1,389 crammed Hobbs Ice Center and saw Eau Claire (15-3-1, 10-2-1 NCHA) get off to a fast start. The Blugolds, who outshot St. Norbert 16-8 in the first period, got the first goal when Devin Mantha scored at 15:08 of the first period.

Eau Claire took command early in the second period, when Jordan Singer sniped his 13th goal of the season just 45 seconds into the period.

St. Norbert (15-4-1, 9-3-1 NCHA) outshot Eau Claire 32-15 in the last two periods, but couldn't solve Eau Claire netminder Brandon Stephenson. Stephenson made 40 saves to hand St. Norbert its first shutout since a 0-0 tie at UW-Superior on Feb. 3, 2012.

David Jacobson made 28 saves for the Green Knights, who played with an empty net the last 2:07 of the game but couldn't get on the scoreboard.

St. Norbert was 0-for-6 on the power play, with the NCAA Division III's top power-play unit now 1-for-18 in its last three games. Eau Claire was 0-for-3 with the man advantage.