Green Knights net late goal, beat Adrian in first of two

By Josh Staloch

Correspondent

ASHWAUBENON – With time dwindling down in Friday night’s Northern Collegiate Hockey Association matchup between Adrian College and St. Norbert College, it looked like the teams were heading to overtime.

With less than five minutes remaining to play, St. Norbert’s Peter Bates knocked home the game-winner to give the Green Knights a 1-0 victory over the Bulldogs at the Cornerstone Community Center.

Game two of the series will take place at 4 p.m. Saturday.

“I thought did a good job of stopping lots of our shots,” said St. Norbert assistant head coach Andy Brandt. “He stopped some big ones early, but [St. Norbert goalie] Colby has been consistent for us. If you look at some of the stops he had to keep us in this hockey game and to keep them off the board, he did a heck of a job.”

Bates scored his eighth goal of the season with 4:42 remaining off an assist from Chase Mickelson.

It was neck and neck offensively throughout the first period, with the No. 14-ranked Bulldogs (8-5-3 overall, 6-3-2 NCHA) putting 10 shots on goal compared to St. Norbert’s (8-7-2, 6-5-2) nine.

The game’s quiet start gave way to a flurry of Adrian shots on goal midway through the opening period, but Entz held his ground and made a couple of big saves to keep the Bulldogs out of the net.

Of the nine shots on goal by the Green Knights, the best looking attempt came via a blue-line try from Brendon Gysbers that caught the right side of the goal.

The second period saw Adrian step up its offensive pressure a notch, testing Entz 12 times compared to only five shots on goal for St. Norbert at the other end.

The visiting squad took five shots before the first two minutes of the period had expired.

The Green Knights’ defense was tested throughout the third period as well, with the Bulldogs getting off another 11 shots, including a big one from Austin Bottrell to start the period.

Adrian outshot St. Norbert overall, 33-21.

The teams combined to go 0-for-7 overall on the power play.

Entz made 33 stops in net, while Gray corralled 20.

“We did a good job of asserting our will and making Adrian play our style of game,” Brandt said. “It was a back-and-forth hockey game. It was a clean, competitive game. Both teams were playing hard, fast and physical.”