NCHA Men – First Round Playoffs
Next weekend, single game semifinal matchups:
(3rd seed) St. Scholastica at (2nd seed) #2 Adrian
(4th seed) Lake Forest at (1st seed) #1 St. Norbert
#1 St. Norbert 3, Lawrence 1
* St. Norbert College advanced in the NCHA Harris Cup Playoffs by sweeping its quarterfinal series against Lawrence University with a 3-1 win at the Cornerstone Community Center. The Green Knights (23-3-1), ranked No. 1 in the USCHO.com and D3hockey.com Division III polls, will face Lake Forest College in a semifinal game at 7 p.m. on Saturday, March 1 at the Cornerstone Community Center. The Vikings end their season 6-19-2. St. Norbert and Lawrence engaged in a tightly contested first period before the Green Knights broke through on a heady play by Michael Hill. The Green Knights were on the power play late in the period when Hill, standing below the goal line just off the back of the cage, banked the puck off Lawrence goaltender Mattias Soderqvist's kidney area and into the net at the 19:58 mark. The goal was Hill's 17th of the season. The Vikings tied the game in the second but SNC once again forged ahead on a Marian FIala goal late in the period. Sam Higgins would close out the scoring with the only goal in the third and David Jacobson added 14 saves.
#2 Adrian 4, MSOE 1
* Junior forward Josh Ranalli came into Saturday with a scoring mentality after hitting a slump over the past few weeks. Ranalli scored 16 goals in his first 13 games of the season but since then came into the game with two goals in his last 12 games. He found that marksmen attitude and pulled into a three-way tie for the NCAA Division III goal lead with two goals in a 4-1 win over visiting Milwaukee School of Engineering in the second quarterfinal game of the NCHA Harris Cup tournament. The Bulldogs advanced to the semifinal round with today's victory and will host St. Scholastica on Saturday, March 1 at 7 p.m.
Lake Forest 3, Marian 2, OT (Lake Forest wins mini-game, 1-0 in OT)
* The Lake Forest College men's hockey team defeated Marian University 3-2 in overtime in game two of their Northern Collegiate Hockey Association Harris Cup quarterfinal series and then posted a 1-0 overtime victory in the ensuing 20-minute mini-game Saturday night. Junior defenseman Ben Certo's goal sent the Foresters to the Harris Cup semifinals. Certo blasted the puck past the Marian goaltender from the point at the 8:44 mark of overtime in the mini-game. He was assisted by junior defenseman Charlie Stein and junior forward Luke Swardenski. The mini-game would not have occurred if not for Forester junior forward Jason McAloon's power play goal at the 3:41 mark of overtime in game two of the series. After falling 3-2 the night before, Lake Forest was less than a minute-and-a-half from elimination and had pulled sophomore goaltender Leo Podolsky for an extra attacker, despite the tie score. McAloon's ninth goal of the year extended the season at least 20 minutes.
St. Scholastica 9, Concordia Wisconsin 4
* The St. Scholastica men's hockey team scored four goals in each of the first two periods en route to a 9-4 win over Concordia University Wisconsin Saturday night to complete the Harris Cup quarterfinal sweep of the Falcons. The Saints did find themselves down very early in the game when CUW's Tanner Bull put the puck past CSS goalie Tyler Bruggeman (North Mankato, Minn./Mankato West HS (Austin-NAHL) ) to make the score 1-0 just 3:43 into the game. The Saints would not be held down for long, however, when just six minutes later Bobby Lipsett (Salmon Arm, British Columbia/Salmon Arm Secondary (Salmon Arm-BCHL) ) took a Derek Sutliffe (Las Vegas, Nev./Odyssey Charter School (Langley Rivermen-BCHL) ) pass and tied the game with just over 10 minutes left in the first period. From there it was all Saints, leading 4-2 after one and 8-3 after two period. Brandon Nowakowksi (3-1-4) netted a hat trick and both Dylan Nowakowski and Matt Malenstyn recorded three assists.
NCHA Women
Lake Forest 3, Marian 2
* The Lake Forest College women's hockey team, ranked 10th in the nation by D3hockey.com, held on for a 3-2 victory at Marian University on Saturday to claim at least a share of the 2014 Northern Collegiate Hockey Association championship. A loss by the College of St. Scholastica at St. Norbert College later in the afternoon clinched the Foresters' second outright title in team history. By virtue of leading the league with a 13-3-2 conference record and 28 points, Lake Forest wins the inaugural Kronschnabel Trophy, given the the NCHA's regular season champion. The Foresters will also host the NCHA Slaats Cup Four in two weeks. Two semifinal games will be played on Friday, March 7, and the final will take place the next day. All three Forester goals on Saturday were scored by sophomore forward Michelle Greeneway, who leads the nation and is the new program record-holder with 29 scores on the season.
St. Norbert 2, St. Scholastica 1
* St. Norbert College closed out its regular season in fine fashion with a hard-fought 2-1 win over College of St. Scholastica at Resch Olympic Pavilion. The Green Knights (17-6-3, 11-5-1 NCHA) finished in third place in the NCHA and also played spoiler to St. Scholastica's regular-season title hopes. St. Norbert will host Marian University at 5 p.m. on Saturday, March 1 in a first-round game in the NCHA Slaats Cup Playoffs at the Resch Olympic Pavilion. St. Scholastica (16-7-3, 12-4-2) got the early jump when Nikki Logergren scored 25 seconds into the game, but the Saints would not score again. St. Norbert tied the game on Andrea Senne's seventh goal of the season, coming at 18:46 of the period. Following a scoreless second period, the game remained deadlocked until Jillian Kosteck finished a backhand at 15:14 for her second goal of the season.
Adrian 2, Concordia Wisconsin 2, OT
* Adrian College scored two goals 24 seconds apart midway through the third period, forcing a 2-2 tie against the Concordia University Wisconsin Women's Hockey team. The matchup at the Ozaukee Ice Center was the regular season finale for both schools.
CUW and Adrian won't have to wait long to see each other again as the two are slated to meet up in the Quarterfinals of the Slaats Cup Playoffs, scheduled to begin next Saturday.
Chris Zills - NCHAhockey.org