Early St. Norbert Blitz Leads to Rout Over UW-Eau Claire

From Sports Information Director, January 30, 2010 | Men's Hockey
by Dan Lukes, dan.lukes@snc.edu, (920) 403-4077

GREEN BAY - Three goals in the first 5 minutes 46 seconds of the game were more than enough to jump-start St. Norbert College's offense in an 8-1 rout of UW-Eau Claire in a Northern Collegiate Hockey Association game at the Cornerstone Community Center.

The third-ranked Green Knights, who suffered their worst league loss in nine years in a four-goal defeat at Eau Claire just two weeks ago, improved to 17-3-1 overall and 12-2 in the NCHA. Eau Claire fell to 6-12-3, 2-9-3.

Johan Ryd got the scoring started just 3:49 in when he knocked in a rebound. Carl Ekstrom, in his first collegiate game, had a hot start to his career with a thunderous drive from the right point at 4:30. Kyle Stroh then notched a power-play goal at 5:46 to finish off the flurry. Eau Claire would pull to within 3-1 after one period when Isaiah Bennis scored on a wrap-around at 11:09.

The Green Knights would get a pair of goals in the second period. Shane Wheeler snapped an 11-game goalless streak when he scored on a breakaway at 5:03. Mike Bernardy's slapshot from the left point at 12:51 made it 5-1.

St. Norbert would get three goals in the third, getting power-play goals from Stroh and Brandon Longley. Tyler Allen also scored on a pretty backdoor play for the other goal.

Wheeler and Longley both finished one goal and three assists for four points, while Bernardy added two assists for a three-point night.

Boyd now has 77 career assists and 116 career points, which puts him in a tie for fourth all-time at St. Norbert in assists and tied for tenth in points. Wheeler's 73 assists put him ninth all-time at St. Norbert.

St. Norbert held a 44-24 shots-on-goal advantage. The Green Knights were 3-for-6 on power-play chances, while Eau Claire was 0-for-5. B.J. O'Brien made 21 saves for St. Norbert, while Tyler Brigl made 36 stops for the Blugolds.