St. Norbert Drops Home Opener to Marian

From Sports Information Director, October 31, 2015 | Men's Hockey
by Dan Lukes, dan.lukes@snc.edu, (920) 403-4077

DE PERE - St. Norbert College couldn't dig out of a hole in the second period and lost its home opener to Marian University 4-2 in a Northern Collegiate Hockey Association game at Cornerstone Community Center.

The Green Knights (1-1, 1-1 NCHA) took a 1-0 lead on an Erik Cooper goal at 16:33 of the first period. St. Norbert committed a penalty 22 seconds later, and Marian cashed in with a power-play goal by Scott Milnthorp at 18:08.

Marian (1-1, 1-1) took control with two goals in the first 1:49 of the second period. Devin Stuermer scored just 35 seconds into the period, while James Mathias pushed the Sabres' lead to 3-1 at 1:49. The visitors took a 4-1 lead into second inter mission when Hunter Stewart scored a power-play goal at 18:22.

St. Norbert cut the deficit to 4-2 on Noah Nelson's second goal of the season, coming off a face-off at 4:01 of the third period. The Green Knights had an extra attacker on the last two minutes of the game, but couldn't draw closer.

Michael Hill, Pijus Rulevicius and Blake Thompson all had assists for St. Norbert.

St. Norbert outshot Marian 25-22. T.J. Black was in goal the first two periods for the Green Knights, making 12 saves. Tony Kujava finished with six saves in the third period. Mike Gudmandson made 23 saves for the Sabres.

Marian was 2-for-4 on the power play, while St. Norbert was 0-for-2.