DE PERE, Wis. — St. Norbert College put together a dominating defensive performance and posted a 5-0 win over Lawrence University in the Northern Collegiate Hockey Association quarterfinal series playoff opener on Friday night.
The Green Knights (18-5-2) allowed just 11 shots on goal and scored twice in each of the first two periods to take command of the game.
St. Norbert only needs a tie in Saturday’s series finale to advance to the NCHA Harris Cup semifinals. Lawrence (7-18-1) needs to win Saturday’s game to force a decisive mini-game.
Five different players scored for the Green Knights, who snapped off 50 shots on goal. Cullen Bradshaw got the scoring started with a power-play goal at 11:45 of the first, and Blake Thompson added another power-play goal at 16:53 for a 2-0 lead.
St. Norbert went 2-for-8 on the power play, and the Vikings were 0-for-6.
The Green Knights pulled away with second-period goals from Tanner Froese and Kyle Lee, and Chris Rial scored early in the third period to complete the scoring.
Tony Kujava made 11 saves to pick up the shutout for St. Norbert, and Mattias Soderqvist stopped 45 shots for the Vikings.