Box score

St. Scholastica seems to save the best for the best. After dealing No. 1 St. Norbert the only blemish on their conference slate with a tie earlier this season, the Saints were at it again on Saturday night on the road in Hunt Arena pulling off the 4-3 overtime upset of No. 4 Wis.-River Falls.

The host Falcons and Saints parried with each other all game.

River Falls opened the scoring in the first period but Jordan Baird (Port McNeill, British Columbia/Victoria (BCHL)) scored his ninth of the season a little more than a minute later to tie things at 1-1.

The Falcons answered back to take a one goal lead a minute leader, and took that 2-1 lead into the locker rooms at the first intermission.

A.J. Tucker, who picked up an assist on Baird's first period score, evened the score for the Saints with his 12th goal of the season, tying things at 2-2 with a power play goal just short of four minutes into the period. Rob Rodgers (Salmon Arm, British Columbia/Salmon Arm (BCHL)) picked up an assist on the score as did Joey Martini (Calgary, Alberta/Canmore (AJHL)) who added his second assist of the night on the Tucker goal.

Again, though, the ebb and flow of the game rode the wave in favor of the Falcons with their own power play goal that would eventually send the teams into the locker rooms after two periods with the home team holding a 3-2 lead.

Somehow, after a combined 27 shots, the third period saw only one goal as both Tyler Johnson (East Grand Forks, Minn./East Grand Forks HS) for the Saints and Stephen Ritter for UWRF turned away nearly every shot.

It was the one that got past Ritter that made the difference, though, as St. Scholastica's Trevor Geiger (Salmon Arm, British Columbia/Salmon Arm (BCHL)) notched his ninth goal of the season, tying the score at 3-3 almost exactly at the third period's midway point. Rodgers got his second assist of the night on the score and Jameson Lundquist (Superior, Wis./Fairbanks (NAHL)) earned the other assist.

As both team's headed into overtime, each thought things were going in their favor.

The Falcons seemed to answer every Saints goal with one of their own. In their eyes, the next one was theirs.

Meanwhile, the Saints were playing toe to toe with the No. 4 team in the nation -- on their home ice -- and had Tyler Johnson (East Grand Forks, Minn./East Grand Forks HS) turning away more than 13 shots in a row from a potent Falcon offense.

Both teams had their chances in the extra period as Johnson faced five shots throughout the five minute period, stopping everything thrown his way.

The Saints themselves only had two shots to that point but all it takes is one, as they say, and St. Scholastica's Jordan Chong (North Vancouver, British Columbia/Dryden (SIJHL)) had that one on his stick.

Off assists from Lundquist and Dustin DeGagne (Winnipeg, Manitoba/Salmon Arm (BCHL)), Chong beat Ritter with just 14 seconds remaining in the OT to pull out the win for the Saints.

It was Chong's eighth goal of the year and his second game-winning goal of the season.

Johnson finished with 35 saves in picking up the win while Ritter took the loss stopping 38 of 42 shots.

The win pushes St. Scholastica's conference mark to 3-5-1 and their overall record to 8-10-2. River Falls dropped only their second conference game of the season, falling to 6-2-1 in the NCHA and to 14-3-3 overall.