Green Knights Hang Ten On Finlandia To Complete Sweep

From Asst. AD/Athletics Communications, January 25, 2020 | Men's Hockey
by Dan Lukes, dan.lukes@snc.edu, (920) 403-4077

DE PERE - St. Norbert College picked up a sweep of Finlandia University in a two-game Northern Collegiate Hockey Association series with a 10-1 victory at Cornerstone Community Center.

The Green Knights (10-8-2, 8-6-2 NCHA), who have gone 8-1-2 in their last 11 games, took a 3-0 lead after the first period and cruised to the win.

Ben Schmidling got things started with a power-play goal at 8:24 of the period, followed by a Kurt Black goal at 11:56. St. Norbert then took a three-goal lead when Tim Nicksic scored a shorthanded marker with 0.5 seconds left in the period.

St. Norbert took a 4-0 lead with a power-play goal at 3:40 of the second period on a Peter Bates goal, his 12th of the year. Finlandia got its only goal at 9:49 of the second period when Tyler Watungwa scored. The Green Knights then put the game away with three goals on a major power play after Finlandia's Phil Schader was thumbed for a checking-from-behind penalty. Keegan Milligan scored his first goal of the season at 12:25, while Black followed up 23 seconds later with another goal. Black then finished out the power play with his third of the night and NCHA-leading 16th of the year, this one coming at 17:12.

The Green Knights reached the 10-goal plateau for the first time since a 12-0 win over Finlandia on Nov. 8, 2014 with three third-period goals. Michael McChesney registered his first collegiate goal at 2:10, followed by an Evan Cholak shorthanded score at 13:08, his first of the season. Peyton Frantti then scored his 10th goal of the season at 16:01.

Frantti finished with one goal and three assists for four points, while Black finished with his hat trick for three points. Bates and Nicksic each had one goal and two assists for three points. Luke Davison and Dominick Sacco each had three assists. Schmidling and Cholak each had an assist to go along with their goals for two-point games.

St. Norbert outshot Finlandia 36-21. Ryan Bontorin made 20 saves for the Green Knights. Santeri Seppinen made 15 stops in the first two periods for the Lions, while Ben Kelsch made 11 saves in the third period.

The Green Knights were 5-for-8 on the power play, and went 8-for-15 in the series. Finlandia was 0-for-8.