(ST NORBERT COMMUNICATIONS) DE PERE – St. Norbert College continued its scorching-hot start to the 2024-25 men’s hockey season with an impressive 6-1 win over Aurora University in a Northern Collegiate Hockey Association game at Cornerstone Community Center.
The Green Knights (9-0, 6-0 NCHA), ranked No. 2 in the USCHO.comDivision III Poll, matched their best start to a season since going 9-0 to open the 2013-14 national championship campaign. Aurora (6-2, 4-2 NCHA) came in ranked fifth in the same poll but suffered its first two losses of the season with the sweep at the hands of St. Norbert.
St. Norbert got on the board with some puck luck, when Curtis Hammond’s attempted pass was redirected in by an Aurora skater at 7:50 of the first period. The Green Knights doubled their lead when a white-hot Liam Fraser converted a power-play chance at 13:49.
The Green Knights pulled away with three second-period goals. Dayton Deics (pictured) finished a nice backhand try just 1:14 into the second period for a 3-0 lead. St. Norbert then scored shorthanded at 5:53, when Logan Dombrowsky finished a 2-on-1 combination with Carter Hottmann for a 4-0 lead. The Green Knights then took all the mystery out of the outcome when Fraser completed a nifty tic-tac-toe sequence with a redirection marker at 18:35.
Ethan Byrne put St. Norbert up 6-0 with a power-play goal at 10:20 of the third period. Aurora scored a consolation goal on a Blake Kondor score at 11:15.
Dombrowsky finished with one goal and three assists for four points, improving his NCAA Division III-leading total to 21 through nine games. Fraser, who went the first four games of the season without a goal, now has 10 on the year with all in the last five games. With a three-point game and 16 points on the season, Fraser now has 143 points on his career, passing Adam Sedgwick (142 points) for fifth place on the St. Norbert career list. Deics added a two-point game with a goal and assist.
St. Norbert outshot Aurora 38-24. Hunter Garvey made 23 saves for the Green Knights.
St. Norbert was 2-for-5 on the power play, while Aurora was 0-for-5.
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