Green Knights Felled By Pointers In Wild Affair

From Sports Information Director, January 3, 2015 | Men's Hockey
by Dan Lukes, dan.lukes@snc.edu, (920) 403-4077

DE PERE - St. Norbert College rallied from a three-goal deficit but couldn't quite get over the hump and dropped a wild 6-5 non-conference game to UW-Stevens Point at Cornerstone Community Center.

The No. 1-ranked Green Knights (10-1-1) had a 22-game unbeaten streak dating back to last season in the loss. No. 8-ranked Stevens Point (10-2) won at the Cornerstone Community Center for the first time since 2001, snapping a 19-game winless streak in the building.

The game started harmlessly enough, with the score tied 1-1 after the first period. The Pointers' Joe Kalisz scored at the 8:18 mark, followed by St. Norbert's Noah Nelson scoring at 11:47.

Stevens Point then scored the first three goals of the second period to take a 4-1 lead. Garrett Ladd (4:39), Kyle Brodie (11:34) and Logan Lemirande (14:34) scored the first three goals against St. Norbert in the second period this season. The Green Knights had outscored their opposition 26-0 in the second period entering the game.

The Green Knights pulled to within 4-2 when Michael Hill scored a 4-on-4 goal at 17:33 of the second period. The goal came moments after a Tyler Zepeda shorthanded opportunity looked to be a goal with the puck going through the net, but no goal was awarded after an officials' conference.

St. Norbert continued its rally with a power-play goal at 5:03 of the third period by Tanner Froese. Pijus Rulevicius then knotted the score at 4-4 with a goal at 7:09. The tie was shortlived, as the Pointers' Scott Henegar registered an unassisted goal at 7:45. Stevens Point took a 6-4 lead with another unassisted marker, this one by Kalisz, at 12:43.

Twelve seconds after that goal St. Norbert's Chris Rial was called for a major interference penalty, but Hill scored shorthanded at 14:06 to bring St. Norbert to within 6-5. The Green Knights had 53 seconds of extra-attacker time at the end of the game, but couldn't find the equalizer.

Hill had an assist for a three-point game, while Sam Higgins had two assists.

St. Norbert outshot Stevens Point 39-23. Brandon Jaeger made 34 saves for the Pointers. David Jacobson made 11 saves in the first two periods for St. Norbert, while Tony Kujava made six stops in the third period.

St. Norbert was 1-for-4 on the power play, while the Pointers were 0-for-4.