St. Norbert Moves Into NCHA Harris Cup Championship

From Sports Information Director, February 28, 2015 | Men's Hockey
by Dan Lukes, dan.lukes@snc.edu, (920) 403-4077

DE PERE - St. Norbert College advanced to the championship game of the Northern Collegiate Hockey Association Harris Cup Playoffs with a 3-1 win over Milwaukee School of Engineering at Cornerstone Community Center.

The Green Knights (20-5-2), who have won the last five NCHA playoff championships, will face Adrian College at 7 p.m. EST on Saturday, March 7 at Arrington Ice Arena in Adrian, Mich. The top-seeded Bulldogs advanced to the championship with a 4-3 overtime win over the College of St. Scholastica.

Following a scoreless first period, St. Norbert took control with three second-period goals. Chris Rial netted the first two, scoring at 5:49 and then again at 9:02. Ross Pavek boosted the Green Knights' lead to 3-0 with a goal at 12:34.

MSOE (17-11) scored its only goal on a Zach Simpson power-play marker at the 10:10 mark of the third period. The Raiders then went on a 5-on-3 advantage just 51 seconds later, but couldn't draw any closer.

Brett Bower, Sam Higgins and Cullen Bradshaw all registered assists for the Green Knights.

St. Norbert outshot the Raiders 31-17, including 12-4 in the decisive second period. Tony Kujava had 16 saves for the Green Knights, while Nick Kohn made 28 stops for MSOE. Kujava saw his consecutive shutout sequence end at 239 minutes 42 seconds.

MSOE was 1-for-8 on the power play, while St. Norbert was 0-for-6.