Hockey

APPLETON, Wis. — Lawrence University faces No. 15 Lake Forest College in a Northern Collegiate Hockey Association series this weekend. The Vikings open the home-and-home series Friday night by hosting the Foresters at 7 p.m. at the Appleton Family Ice Center. Lawrence then travels to Lake Forest, Ill., for a 7 p.m. game on Saturday.

Preview

DULUTH, Minn. — St. Scholastica used its special teams for nearly all of its offense and went on to a 4-2 Northern Collegiate Hockey Association win over Lawrence University on Saturday at Mars Lakeview Arena.

The Saints (10-7-2, 7-4-1 NCHA) got a pair of power-play goals and a short-hander to secure a series sweep from Lawrence (6-12-1, 5-7-0). St. Scholastica won 6-1 on Friday night.

Lawrence jumped out to a 2-0 lead 12:10 into the first period. The Vikings scored first on Tom Lee’s second goal of the season at the 7:54 mark. Lawrence made it 2-0 when Blake Roubos scored his sixth goal of the season at the 12:10 mark.

A Cory Bastian roughing penalty put the Saints on the power play, and Dylan Nowakowski cashed in at the 13:59 mark to cut the lead to 2-1.

The Vikings were on the power play to start the second period, but Michael Spring’s short-hander 30 seconds into the period tied the game at 2-2.

The Saints were on a two-man advantage after penalties to Patrick Coyne and Kevin Killian, and Derek Hill scored on the power play at the 10:42 mark of the second to put St. Scholastica up 3-2.

St. Scholastica was 2-for-6 on the power play, and the Vikings went 0-for-5.

The score stayed that way until Joel Paiement scored with just 6:29 remaining in the third period to help seal the victory.

Tyler Bruggeman made 24 saves to pick up the win for the Saints. Mattias Soderqvist stopped 42 shots for the Vikings.

Box score

DULUTH, Minn. — St. Scholastica scored four times in the second period Friday and went on to a 6-1 Northern Collegiate Hockey Association win over Lawrence University at Mars Lakeview Arena.

The game was tied 1-1 after the opening period, but the Saints (9-7-2, 6-4-1 NCHA) scored twice in the first 3:39 of the second and then added two more goals in a span of 36 seconds midway through the period.

Dylan Nowakowski and Luke Simpson both scored two goals for the Saints.

Brandon Boelter scored the first goal of the game for the Vikings (6-11-1, 5-6-0) on the power play at 12:47 of the first. Nowakowski’s goal with just 54 seconds left in the first period tied it at 1-1.

Tyler Bruggeman made just 14 saves to pick up the win for St. Scholastica, which had a 45-15 edge in shots. Mattias Soderqvist made 24 saves and allowed five goals for the Vikings before being removed midway through the second period. Peter Emery stopped 15 shots and gave up one goal in relief of Soderqvist.

Box score

APPLETON, Wis. — The Lawrence University hockey team needed this win like a man in the Sahara needs a glass of ice water.

The Vikings beat MSOE 3-2 this past Saturday to earn a critical split of a Northern Collegiate Hockey Association series with the Raiders and keep pace in the conference standings.

“Absolutely essential,” Lawrence coach Mike Szkodzinski said of the win. “We needed some good things to happen to start feeling good about ourselves again. We had played hard but hadn’t earned any bounces over the past several games. It felt good to see our players enjoy their hard work paying off. If you consider the circumstances, time of the year and the tough schedule we just endured, this was a very high-quality win, maybe one of the biggest in the past nine years.”

Lawrence, which snapped a six-game losing streak and won for the first time in 16 chances at MSOE’s Kern Center, is now 5-5-0 in the NCHA (6-10-1 overall) and is tied for fifth place with MSOE. The top four teams in the league earn home ice for the opening round of the playoffs, and Lawrence has three of the four teams ahead of it in the standings remaining on the schedule.

“The win on Saturday was huge for us,” sophomore goaltender Mattias Soderqvist said. “The passion and work ethic we showed this past weekend was really good, and definitely something for us to keep building on.

“However, we need to leave the win against MSOE behind us and refocus. We have two games coming up against a good St Scholastica team this weekend, and we need everything we have to back this past weekend’s effort up.”

Junior forward Renato Engler summed up last weekend’s win in one word, confidence.

“Last weekend’s series against MSOE was huge for our confidence because we proved to ourselves that we have the ability to beat any team in our league if we compete and play within our system,” Engler said.

Engler, who has four goals and six assists this season for 10 points, is part of a system that relies on a balanced offensive attack. The Vikings have 17 players with at least one goal and 10 with at least five points.

“The face that we do not rely on a single player to score our goals perfectly shows what our team is all about,” Engler said. “We need every single guy on the team to buy in if we want to be successful.”

The Vikings, normally a stingy defensive squad, have struggled on the blue line and are allowing 4.12 goals per game. Lawrence seemed to turn a corner after the first period of last Friday’s game. Lawrence allowed just four goals over the final 109:17 of the series.

The Vikings were also much better on the penalty kill, an area where Lawrence has stumbled, over the weekend. Lawrence killed off 11-of-13 chances for MSOE, which translates to an .846 kill percentage. Lawrence entered the series at .708 on the penalty kill.

“We are extremely focused on our overall defensive play,” Szkodzinski said. “We pride ourselves on keeping the puck out of our net, and we are not doing it as consistently as we would like to be.  Strong defense is the foundation of our program. We seem to be doing a better job in the neutral zone as of late limiting odd-man rushes and keeping our opponents off-balance.”

Soderqvist was superb over the final five periods of the series with MSOE. On the season, he has a .905 save percentage and 3.77 goals against average.

“My goal every game is to give my team the opportunity to win, and I feel like I made saves at key times this weekend,” said Soderqvist, a native of Stockholm, Sweden. “I need to work on my rebounds. At least two of the goals this past weekend were scored on my rebounds, and I need to do a better job getting the shots to the corners, or to less-dangerous spots where they can’t score.”

Szkodzinski, an All-America goaltender back in his playing days, was effusive in his praise of his netminder.

“Mattias is our rock,” Szkodzinski said. “He is a highly competitive kid who works as hard as anyone on the ice. His numbers may not show it, but he has played at a very high level in virtually every game this season. It is our job to give him more help at the net front.”

The Vikings have a very young group of defensemen that includes five rookies among the regulars, and Soderqvist likes the potential of the group playing in front of him.

“At this point of the season I don’t see our young defensemen as young anymore,” Soderqvist said. “They have become key players for us and know what NCAA hockey is about now. They have been really good, but I know that they, as well as myself and the rest of the team, have more to give.”

APPLETON, Wis. — Lawrence University makes the long drive to Duluth, Minn., to face the College of St. Scholastica in a Northern Collegiate Hockey Association series this weekend. Friday’s game gets started at 7 p.m. at Mars Lakeview Arena, and they will drop the puck at 4 p.m. Saturday. The Vikings are coming off a split against MSOE, and St. Scholastica picked up a tie with Adrian College last weekend.

Preview

MILWAUKEE, Wis. — Lawrence University scored three first-period goals and rode that to a 3-2 Northern Collegiate Hockey Association win over MSOE on Saturday at the Kern Center.

Lawrence (6-10-1, 5-5-0 NCHA) got goals from three different players in the first 17 minutes and kept MSOE (10-7-0, 5-5-0) off the board for the final 31:06 of the contest.

Lawrence goaltender Mattias Soderqvist was superb in net as he stopped 39 shots to pick up the win.

The Vikings got on the board while MSOE was on the power play early in the first period. The Raiders were on the man-advantage after Brandon Boelter was sent off for interference at 4:52, but Lawrence’s Matt Moore scored a short-handed goal just 21 seconds later to give the Vikings a 1-0 lead.

Lawrence made it 2-0 on Ryan Eardley’s first goal of the season at the 13:04 mark. The Raiders cut the margin to 2-1 on Ryan Moneer’s power-play goal at 16:17.

The Vikings struck back quickly as Blake Roubos scored 35 seconds later to push the advantage to 3-1.

MSOE cut the margin to 3-2 on another Moneer power-play goal at the 8:54 mark of the second. Lawrence stopped the Raiders from that point as the Vikings killed off three penalties, including two in the final period. Soderqvist stopped all 13 shots he faced in the final period.

Austin Campbell made the start in net for MSOE but allowed all three goals before being replaced. Zach Woodman stopped 30 shots in relief as the Vikings fired off 44 shots on the evening.

Box score

APPLETON, Wis. — MSOE scored a pair of goals in the final 45 seconds to turn back a Lawrence University rally and post a 5-2 Northern Collegiate Hockey Association victory on Friday night at the Appleton Family Ice Center.

Lawrence trailed 3-1 when the Vikings pulled goaltender Mattias Soderqvist with just over three minutes left. Freshman Jake Kreutzer scored his second goal of the night with the extra attacker on the ice to cut the lead to 3-2 with 2:14 left.

MSOE (10-6-0, 5-4-0 NCHA) got an empty-net goal from James Ring with 45 seconds left to stretch the lead to 4-2, and Omar Mullen capped the scoring with another goal with just 13 ticks remaining.

Soderqvist made 38 saves for the Vikings (5-10-1, 4-5-0) and took the loss. Nick Kohn stopped 19 shots for the Raiders to get the win.

MSOE jumped on top just 3:51 into the game on Cody Ganchar’s goal, but the Vikings countered with Kreutzer’s first goal of the night, a power-play tally, at the 8:41 mark of the first.

The Raiders made it 2-1 on Connor Enciso’s goal at the 17:13 mark of the first. Ring then picked up a short-handed goal just 43 seconds into the second period to put the Raiders up 3-1.

The teams wrap up the series Saturday night at the Kern Center in Milwaukee.

Box score

APPLETON, Wis. — The Lawrence University hockey team gets back to Northern Collegiate Hockey Association play this weekend when the Vikings face the Milwaukee School of Engineering. Lawrence hosts the Raiders at the Appleton Family Ice Center on Friday at 7 p.m. and then travels to MSOE for a 7 p.m. game Saturday night.

Preview

ST. CLOUD, Minn. — The No. 15 St. John’s University hockey team scored the game’s first four goals and went on to a 6-2 nonconference victory over Lawrence University on Sunday at the National Hockey Center.

The Johnnies (7-3-4) scored just 2:34 into the game and then added a pair of goals just 34 seconds apart late in the period to grab a 3-0 edge after the first period.

Kevin Becker scored at the 3:16 mark of the second period for a 4-0 edge before the Vikings started to rally. Renato Engler got Lawrence (5-9-1) on the board at the 15:04 mark of the second to cut the margin to 4-1. Brendan Vetter then scored on the power play with just 1:03 left in the second period to trim the lead to 4-2.

That’s as close as the Vikings would get as Dan McNamara and Phil Johnson added third-period goals for the Johnnies.

Saxton Soley made 32 saves to pick up the win for St. John’s. Mattias Soderqvist stopped 34 shots for the Vikings.

Box score

MOORHEAD, Minn. — The Concordia (Minn.) College hockey team posted a 5-1 nonconference win over Lawrence University on Saturday at the Moorhead Sports Center.

The Cobbers (7-5-3) got a hat trick from Jordie Bancroft, and Lawrence (5-8-1) recorded only 14 shots in the contest.

Concordia got two goals in a stretch of 3:24 to take a 2-0 lead in the first period. Matt Moore then scored for the Vikings on the power play at the 16:39 mark, and Lawrence trailed 2-1 after the first.

Bancroft then scored his second goal of the game, a power-play tally, just 1:10 into the second period for a 3-1 lead. Bancroft completed the hat trick with another power-play goal at the 5:32 mark of the third, and the Cobbers led 4-1.

Concordia completed the scoring with a goal by Zach Doerring with just 21 seconds remaining in the contest.

Peter Emery, seeing his first action of the season, stopped 36 shots for the Vikings. Jordyn Kaufer made 13 saves for Concordia.

Box score