Yellowjackets knock off Saints in NCHA finale

The University of Wisconsin-Superior claimed a 4-3 victory over the College of St. Scholastica Thursday night at Mars Lakeview Arena.

The game marked the final meeting between the two teams in the regular season as Northern Collegiate Hockey Association foes.

Next season, UWS will be part of the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference and St. Scholastica will be in the Midwest Collegiate Hockey Association. The NCHA will dissolve.

The win puts UWS (11-8-1, 6-6-1 NCHA) at 2-1 for the season against the Saints (7-12-1, 3-9-1). In a season-opening series at Wessman Arena on Oct. 26-27, St. Scholastica won the opener 5-1 and UWS won the next night 6-4.

CSS opened the scoring Thursday night when Brett Corcoran put back a loose puck on a rebound at 8:21. Tyler Miller and Alex Valenti assisted on the goal, with Valenti fighting off a check to make the initial shot.

UWS answered less than a minute later when Joey Massingham put in a wrap-around at 9:12. Pat Dalbec assisted on the goal.

The Yellowjackets then took the 2-1 lead at 13:37 when Michael Rey put in a shot from the right circle, assisted by Andy Singerhouse.

Neither team scored in the second period, but Corcoran scored again for the Saints 2:05 into the third period to even the game at 2-2.

The score remained tied for the next seven minutes. UWS then regained the lead when Josh Kesler got the puck all alone in front on a CSS turnover and put away the breakaway goal unassisted.

Kessler added his second goal of the night with 5:46 left to play to give the Yellowjackets a 4-2 lead.

UWS nearly squandered its advantage with a pair of costly penalties. First came a major five-minute facemask penalty against UWS to put the Saints on the power play for the final minutes of the game.

Dave Williams took advantage with a power-play goal seconds into the penalty, and CSS then gained a two-man advantage for the final two minutes of play on a Yellowjacket slashing penalty at 18:11.

UWS outshot CSS 11-8 in both the first and second periods, but the Saints held a 14-11 advantage in the third period. The Yellowjackets outshot CSS 33-30 for the game.

UWS plays at UW-Stout at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, then hosts the U.S. National Team Development Program U18 team from Ann Arbor, Mich. at 5 p.m. Sunday.

The U18 team plays at Minnesota Duluth at 2 p.m. Saturday.

Already this season, against Division I men’s hockey competition, the U18s are 6-4-2 and have defeated Michigan 5-3 and Merrimack 3-1, and tied

No. 7-ranked Notre Dame 1-1 and No. 1 Minnesota 2-2. On Tuesday night, in East Lansing, Mich., the U18s beat Michigan State 3-0, which did not set well with the Spartans.

Stick it to Cancer

The UWS hockey teams will be hosting “Stick it to Cancer” during a pair of upcoming hockey games.

The events will take place on Saturday when the women’s hockey team plays Marian, and on Feb. 9 when the men’s hockey team plays UW-Eau Claire.

Both teams will be wearing special limited edition jerseys that will be auctioned off after the game.

UWS 2 0 2 — 4

CSS 1 0 2 — 3

First period — 1. CSS, Brett Corcoran (Tyler Miller, Alex Valenti), 8:21; 2. UWS, Joey Massingham (Pat Dalbec), 9:12; 3. UWS, Michael Rey (Andy Singerhouse), 13:37.

Third period — 4. CSS, Corcoran (Miller, Valenti), 2:05; 5. UWS, Josh Kesler, 9:03; 6. UWS, Kesler (Rey), 14:14; 7. CSS, Dave Williams (Brenden Kotyk), 17:02 (pp).

Saves — Ryan Pinoniemi, UWS, 27; Tyler Bruggeman, CSS, 29.

Tags: sports, hockey, uws, yellowjackets, updates