St. Norbert Gets Upper Hand on Lake Forest

From Sports Information Director, February 26, 2016 | Women's Hockey
by Dan Lukes, dan.lukes@snc.edu, (920) 403-4077

DE PERE - St. Norbert College jumped out to the series lead with a 3-1 win over Lake Forest College in the first game of a two-game Northern Collegiate Hockey Association Slaats Cup Playoffs semifinal series at Alumni Memorial Fieldhouse.

The Green Knights (15-8-3) led 3-0 after two periods to take control against the Foresters (20-4-2), ranked No. 5 in the USCHO.com Division III Poll. St. Norbert needs a win or a tie Saturday in Game 2 to advance to the NCHA championship game. A Lake Forest win in Game 2 would necessitate a 20-minute mini-game to be played immediately following the regular contest.

St. Norbert scored right off the hop to take a 1-0 lead on a Reaghan Chadwick goal just 18 seconds to the game. It was Chadwick's 11th goal of the season. Lauren Roethlisberger had one of the two assists on the goal, giving her 91 career points. The helper pushed her atop the St. Norbert career scoring list past Zoe Kurth, who had 90 career points from 2011-14.

Jillian Kosteck then scored an unassisted goal at 6:26 of the first period for a 2-0 advantage. The marker was Kosteck's eighth of the year.

The Green Knights then opened a 3-0 bulge when Jessica Schlaff scored at 6:49 of the second period.

Lake Forest wouldn't get on the scoreboard until Olivia Spellmire scored a power-play goal at the 12:50 mark of the third period. The Foresters had 1:18 of extra-attacker time in the third period but couldn't draw closer.

Lake Forest outshot St. Norbert 22-20. Leigh Grall made 21 stops for the Green Knights, while three goaltenders had 17 stops combined for the Foresters.

St. Norbert was 0-for-3 on the power play while Lake Forest was 1-for-6.