January 29, 2012

Class of 2010: St. Norbert, St. Scholastica Split Series

SATURDAY: St. Norbert 2 at St. Scholastica 1
(From SNC Sports Information)
DULUTH, Minn. - St. Norbert College picked up two valuable points in the Northern Collegiate Hockey Association standings with a 2-1 win over the College of St. Scholastica at Mars Lakeview Arena.

The Green Knights moved to 8-11 overall and 6-8 in the NCHA, while the Saints dropped to 10-5-3, 8-4-1.

St. Norbert took a 2-0 lead and held on for the win. Tara Frey scored her second goal of the season, with Zoe Kurth getting an assist, with a score at 17 minutes 31 seconds of the first period. Danielle Rozon then scored at 6:58 of the second period, with Jade Popescul getting an assist. Rozon's goal was her fifth of the year.

The Saints cut into the lead with a power-play goal by Nina Waidacher at 18:09 of the second period. The marker was Waidacher's 14th of the season.

St. Norbert killed off two St. Scholastica power plays in the third period and also fended off the Saints' extra attacker for the last 1:26 of the game.

St. Scholastica outshot St. Norbert 36-21. Kaley Gibson made 35 saves for the Green Knights, while Sheridan Friesen made 19 stops for the Saints. St. Scholastica was 1-for-7 on the power play, while St. Norbert was 0-for-2.




SUNDAY: St. Norbert 3 at St. Scholastica 5
(From CSS Sports Information)
The CSS women's hockey team showed a little bit of fire in a 5-3 victory over the St. Norbert Green Knights at Mars Lakeview Arena the day after getting upset by the Knights.

The victory over St. Norbert (8-12-0, 6-9-0 NCHA) is the first in St. Scholastica's short two-year history after dropping the first three against the Green Knights.

CSS didn't waste any time as Michelle Fischer (St. Paul, Minn./Cretin-Derham Hall) put in a rebound shot just 26 seconds into the game on an assist from Monika Waidacher (Arosa, Switzerland/Wirtschaftsschule KV Chur (Swiss National Team)) for an early 1-0 Saints lead.

The scoring would continue quickly 1:32 later when Waidacher put in a goal of her own on assists from Fischer and Nina Waidacher (Arosa, Switzerland/Wirtschaftschule KV Chur (ZSC Lions/Swiss U18 National)) to make it 2-0 CSS.

The next 1:32 brought yet another goal for the Saints when Frankie Bergmann put in a slap shot from the blue line to make it 3-0 CSS just 3:30 into the game.  Michelle Rebeck (St. Andrews, Manitoba/Balmoral Hall) and Cara McMannis (Holland, Manitoba/Treherne Collegiate Institute (Pembina Valley Hawks)) earned assists on the play.

It was at this point that St. Norbert called a timeout and pulled starting goalie Katie Aluia replacing her with last night's goaltender Kaley Gibson.  Gibson picked up right where she left off after last night's 35 save performance in shutting down the Saints for the rest of the period.

With Gibson's defensive effort the Green Knights were able to cut down the CSS lead at the 15:21 mark of the first when Henriette Ostergaard found the back of the net on a Zoe Kurth assist to make it 3-1.

Then with just 35 seconds remaining in the period St. Norbert's Tarraneh Dadgar put in her first goal of the season on an Ali Parker assist to cut the lead to one going into the first intermission.

The Saints once again started the scoring in the second period when Rebeck scored 3:23 in on assists from both Waidachers to make it 4-2 Saints.

Two and a half minutes later Tara Frey scored her second goal of the series for SNC to cut the lead back down to one.  Ostergaard and Kurth were credited with assists on the play.  The 4-3 score would remain when the buzzer sounded as the Saints took a one goal lead into the second intermission.

Just 2:39 into the third the Saints took advantage of a power play opportunity when Fischer notched her second goal of the game to extend the Saint lead to two goals once again at 5-3.  N. Waidacher was credited with an assist on the play.

The Saints held St. Norbert in check the rest of the game and shut down the Green Knights even with an extra attacker to get the 5-3 victory and earn a series split.

Sheridan Friesen (Winnipeg, Manitoba/Ontario Hockey Academy) earned the victory for CSS in goal making 20 saves and improving her record to 5-3-1.

Fischer's outstanding game now gives her a total of 21 points on seven goals and 14 assists.  Tied with her in second is M. Waidacher who now has eight goals and 13 assists.  Both players trail the freshman phenom Nina Waidacher (Arosa, Switzerland/Wirtschaftschule KV Chur (ZSC Lions/Swiss U18 National)) who now has 26 total points on 14 goals and 12 assists.

The Saints (11-5-3, 9-4-1 NCHA) will be on the road for all but one of their remaining games starting with a trip to Lake Forest, Ill. to take on the third place Lake Forest College Foresters (11-6-1, 1-4-0 NCHA).  Next Saturday's puck drop will be at 7 p.m. and Sunday's at 2 p.m. at Alumni Memorial Fieldhouse in Lake Forest.  Stay tuned to csssaints.com for game coverage information.