St. Norbert Opens Post-Season With Shutout of Lawrence

From Sports Information Director, February 21, 2014 | Men's Hockey
by Dan Lukes, dan.lukes@snc.edu, (920) 403-4077

DE PERE - St. Norbert College began its journey in the Northern Collegiate Hockey Association Harris Cup Playoffs with a 5-0 shutout win over Lawrence University in the first game of a quarterfinal series at Cornerstone Community Center.

The Green Knights (22-3-1), ranked No. 1 in the USCHO.com and D3hockey.com Division III polls, need just a tie in Saturday to advance to the NCHA semifinals. If Lawrence (6-18-2) wins, a 20-minute mini-game will follow the regularly scheduled contest.

The series opener was all St. Norbert, which held a 46-12 shots on goal advantage. The Green Knights allowed the Vikings the first two shots on net of the game, but had 15 of the first period's last 16 shots for a 15-3 edge in the first 20 minutes, which ended scoreless.

St. Norbert got things rolling in the second period, when Joe Perry banged home his 17th goal of the season with a power-play marker at 4:49. Ross Pavek then finished a 2-on-1 breakaway off a pass from Noah Nelson for a 2-0 edge at 17:30.

The Green Knights padded their lead when Brandon Hoogenboom scored on a wrister at 9:01 of the third period. Hoogenboom, who now has 12 goals on the season, added his second of the game at 17:03. Michael Hill closed out the scoring with his 16th goal of the season at 18:09.

Pijus Rulevicius and Marian Fiala both had two assists for the Green Knights.

David Jacobson made 12 saves for his sixth shutout of the season and the 16th of his career, now only second in Division III history to former St. Norbert standout Kyle Jones' 25. Jacobson lowered his goals against average to 1.29, which is tops in Division III. Mattias Soderqvist made 41 stops for the Vikings.

St. Norbert was 1-for-5 on the power play, while Lawrence was 0-for-3.