(ST. NORBERT COMMUNICATIONS) DE PERE – St. Norbert College pulled away from Trine University late as the Green Knights fashioned a 5-1 win in a semifinal game of the Northern Collegiate Hockey Association Harris Cup Playoffs at Cornerstone Community Center.
The Green Knights (20-6-2), ranked No. 5 in the USCHO.com Division III Poll, will host No. 2-ranked Aurora University (23-4-1) at 7 p.m. Saturday, March 7 in the Harris Cup championship game at Cornerstone Community Center. The win over Trine moved St. Norbert to 40-1 in its last 41 home games in a single-elimination playoff setting dating back to the 2006 season. It also clinched the 25th 20-win season for the Green Knights in 32 seasons under head coach Tim Coghlin.
St. Norbert got the jump on Trine in the early going, when Jack Christen’s rebound finish off a strong push to the net by Curtis Hammond marked a 1-0 lead just 2:57 into the game. The Thunder opted to pull starting goaltender Kyle Kozma after the marker and the Green Knights didn’t waste much time in greeting Peyton Grainer when Calvin Hanson flew up the far wall and drove the net to finish for a 2-0 lead at the 9:39 mark. Trine would get a goal back when it scored a power-play goal at 16:11 of the first period off the stick of Brody Simko. The Thunder would get another power-play chance immediately after, but the Green Knights would kill it to take a 2-1 lead into first intermission.
The Green Knights would get two power-play chances in the second period but neither team scored in the middle 20 minutes.
St. Norbert would keep nursing its 2-1 lead through most of the third period and broke through with a backbreaker, pulling ahead by two goals when Braydon Beahm (pictured) redirected a Dayton Deics wrister from the circle at 13:56. The Green Knights salted the game away when Cooper Morris finished an empty-net breakaway despite being hauled down as he neared the goal at 15:50, and Blake Ulve potted an empty-netter of his own on a shot from in front of the St. Norbert bench at 16:25.
Ulve finished with one goal and one assist for two points, while Hammond had two assists for two points.
St. Norbert outshot Trine 35-23. Hunter Garvey made 22 saves for the Green Knights, while Kozma made two saves and Grainer 28 stops for the Thunder.
St. Norbert was 0-for-5 on the power play, while Trine was 1-for-2.
Comments