(ST NORBERT COMMUNICATIONS) – DE PERE – The final game St. Norbert College was scheduled to play after a 26-year stay at the Cornerstone Community Center was perhaps the best.
In a game featuring endless momentum swings and a pulsating final minute of action, the Green Knights survived to top the University of New England 5-4 in a first-round NCAA Division III Tournament game in what is slated to be the final game at the Cornerstone before moving into the adjacent Schneider Family Arena next October. St. Norbert (22-6-1) advances to face three-time defending national champion Hobart College (28-0) on Saturday, March 21 in a national quarterfinal game in Geneva, N.Y.
St. Norbert was nursing a 4-3 lead late when UNE pulled goaltender Harrison Chesney for an extra attacker with 1:28 to go. The Nor’easters found the equalizer with 30.4 seconds remaining when Nathan Chickering scored following a flurry of pressure around the net. Overtime loomed until St. Norbert had one last rush up the ice, with sophomore defenseman Jack Christen (pictured, front) getting enough time and space to put a backhand move on Chesney to pot the go-ahead goal with 12 seconds left. UNE challenged a potential offsides call on the play via video review but the goal was upheld resulting in a delay of game penalty with the Green Knights closing out the game from there.
The final minute was as furious with action as the first period, which saw five of the game’s nine goals. St. Norbert went ahead just 56 seconds in when Calvin Hanson took a long outlet pass from Cooper Morris and scored on a breakaway. The Nor’easters wasted little time responding, with Ryan Hadland scoring at 2:57 and Nick Marino on a breakaway of his own at 6:24 for a 2-1 lead. The Green Knights countered at 7:22 when Logan Dombrowsky cashed in a power-play opportunity to tie things up at 2-2. UNE pulled ahead with a goal by Dominic Murphy at 15:42 for a 3-2 lead heading into first intermission.
St. Norbert scored the second period’s lone goal when Blake Ulve finished a power-play shot near post at 14:16 to tie things up 3-3.
That goal would hold up until Braydon Beahm sent St. Norbert ahead for the first time since the game’s early moments when his bounding puck scooted past Chesney with 4:14 remaining for a 4-3 lead and set up the game’s final thrilling closing moments.
Christen had St. Norbert’s lone multi-point game, finishing with one goal and one assist for two points.
UNE outshot St. Norbert 32-24, including 14-3 in the third period but the Green Knights ended up with a 2-1 edge at the pay window in the final 20 minutes. Hunter Garvey made 28 saves for the Green Knights, while Chesney made 19 stops for the Nor’easters.
St. Norbert finished 2-for-6 on the power play against a UNE team that was 93-for-94 (98.9 percent) on the penalty kill this season coming into the game. UNE did not score on its lone power play of the game, coming late in the second period.
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