Green Knights earn much-needed sweep

By SNC Athletics

DE PERE - After a pair of losses the previous weekend, the St. Norbert College men’s hockey team needed a couple bounceback games.

They got that against visiting Lake Forest College.

St. Norbert scored a 3-1 victory on Jan. 13 and the next night earned a 5-2 win in Northern Collegiate Hockey Association (NCHA) action at Tim Coghlin Rink at Cornerstone Community Center.

The Green Knights are now 11-5-1 overall and 8-2 in conference.

St. Norbert 3, Lake Forest 1

St. Norbert got a pair of goals in the final three minutes to gain a 3-1 win over Lake Forest.

The Green Knights snapped a 1-1 tie when Carter Hottmann banged home a rebound with exactly 3 minutes remaining for a power-play goal.

St. Norbert and Lake Forest then had a skirmish in front of the Foresters’ goal just 20 seconds later, with the Green Knights getting whistled for a five-minute major facemasking penalty. St. Norbert killed off 90 seconds with Lake Forest then pulling goaltender Nick Wiencek with 1:10 remaining. Moments later, Curtis Hammond took a puck up the near wall and had plenty of space and time to fire a shorthanded, empty-net goal into the cage with 1:02 left.

The Foresters would get 45 seconds of extra attacker time in the final minute but did not get any quality scoring chances to draw nearer.

Lake Forest (6-7-3, 3-4-2 NCHA) got on the board early when Connor Scahill put a puck home at 7:29 of the first period. The Green Knights outshot the Foresters 18-9 in the first period, but still trailed 1-0 after 20 minutes.

St. Norbert scored early in the second period when Brock Baker registered a marker at the 1:51 mark. That goal held up until Hottmann’s goal put the Green Knights ahead late in the third.

Hammond added an assist on Baker’s goal for the Green Knights only two-point game.

St. Norbert outshot Lake Forest, 46-26. Johnny Roberts made 25 saves for the Green Knights, while Wiencek made 43 stops for the Foresters.

St. Norbert 5, Lake Forest 2

A shorthanded St. Norbert College churned out a gritty performance with a 5-2 win over Lake Forest College to finish off a two-game sweep.

Dressing just 17 skaters, two short of the limit, the Green Knights pulled away from a 2-2 tie at the second intermission with three third-period goals.

Michael Spethmann scored at 2:55 of the third period to snap the tie and push St. Norbert ahead 3-2. Brendan Aird then gave the Green Knights a big insurance goal with a power-play marker at 11:21. Spethmann then salted the game away with an empty-net goal at 17:48.

St. Norbert took a 1-0 lead after the first period when Ben Schmidling scored at 10:12 of the first period for the only goal in the first 20 minutes. Lake Forest would counter wiht a goal from Colin Bella at 3:02 of the second period, but Hammond scored at 9:09 of the second period to push St. Norbert ahead 2-1. Bella then registered a power-play goal at 11:05 to bring the Foresters level at 2-2.

Spethmann added an assist along with his two goals for a three-point game. Schmidling had a goal and two assists for three points, while Liam Fraser registered three assists for three points.

Lake Forest outshot St. Norbert, 29-27. Johnny Roberts made 27 saves for the Green Knights, while Wiencek made 22 stops for the Foresters.