Koepplinger, Soderqvist sweep NCHA weekly awards

Josh Koepplinger
Josh Koepplinger
Mattias Soderqvist
Mattias Soderqvist

APPLETON, Wis. — Lawrence University’s Josh Koepplinger and Mattias Soderqvist swept the Northern Collegiate Hockey Association weekly awards in the wake of a big win.

Koeppliner (Saginaw, Mich.), a sophomore forward, was named the Offensive Player of the Week and senior goaltender Mattias Soderqvist (Stockholm, Sweden) was chosen as Defensive Player of the Week. In Lawrence’s only action of the week, the Vikings downed No. 6 Augsburg College 5-3.

Koepplinger scored two goals, including the game-winner, to pace the Lawrence attack. Koepplinger scored the game’s opening goal midway through the first period, but the Vikings needed another goal from him in the third to retake the lead.

After Augsburg rallied to tie the game at 3-3 with seven minutes left in the third period, Koepplinger scored just 30 seconds later to collect the game-winning goal. Koepplinger, who won an NCHA weekly award for the first time in his career, has three goals this season and is tied for the team lead with nine points.

Soderqvist earned the sixth NCHA Defensive Player of the Week award of his career. He stopped a season-high 42 shots and came up big when the Vikings needed him most.

Soderqvist stopped 18 of 19 shots in the final period, and that included a spectacular save with 10 seconds remaining and the game tied at 4-4. Soderqvist redirected that puck to teammate Blake Roubos, who scored an empty-net goal and gave Soderqvist the second assist of his career.

After getting off to a difficult start this season, Soderqvist has improved to 2-3-0 and lowered his goals against average to 4.99 while raising his save percentage to .860.

The win over the sixth-ranked Auggies was Lawrence’s first over a ranked opponent since defeating No. 15 St. Scholastica on Jan. 25, 2014.

Lawrence ended the first half of the season with a 4-6-1 record, including a 3-2-1 mark in the NCHA. The Vikings take several weeks off during the holidays and return to action on Jan. 6 at Concordia (Wis.).