Box Score Box Score

The 13th-ranked St. Scholastica men's hockey team suffered a tough loss to the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point Pointers 2-1 on Friday night at Mars Lakeview Arena.

The loss to the Pointers (11-8-3, 7-5-3 NCHA) didn't hurt the Saints too badly in the conference standings as NCHA leading St. Norbert skated to a scoreless tie with UW-Superior on Friday.  This leaves the Saints two points behind St. Norbert going into tomorrow night's game.

The defense was strong early on as neither team could find the back of the net in the opening minutes.

It wasn't until there was 1:03 left in the first period that Stevens Point's Kyle Heck snuck in a wrap around goal to give UWSP a 1-0 lead.  Andrew Kolb and Kent Detlefsen were credited with assists on the play.

St. Scholastica's Colin Rundell (Tees, Alberta/Lacombe Composite (Alaska-Fairbanks) ) had a great game in net making circus-like saves and holding the Pointers without a goal the entire second period.  The Saints also remained scoreless in the second leaving the score at 1-0 going into the second intermission.

The defense continued in the third before Heck found the net on a power play at the 14:18 mark to notch his second on the night with assists from Kolb and Kevin Gibson.

Facing a two-goal deficit the Saints pulled their goaltender with just over a minute left.  With the man advantage St. Scholastica's Tyler Miller (Fort Frances, Ontario/Rainy River HS (Thunder Bay-SIJHL) ) scored cutting the lead in half with 40 seconds left in the game.  Brett Corcoran (Parksville, British Columbia/Ballenas Secondary (Trail Smoke-BCHL) ) and Brenden Bradbury (Winnipeg, Manitoba/Monticello HS/Vincent Massey Collegiate (Waywayseecappo-MJHL) ) had assists on the play.

Miller's goal proved to be too little too late for CSS as the Pointers held their ground and escaped Duluth with a 2-1 victory.

Rundell made 23 saves in the loss as his record falls to 9-6-4.

Miller's goal puts him in a tie for second on the team with 23 points on eight goals and 15 assists.  Corcoran reached the 30-point mark with his assist as he now has 15 along with 15 goals on the season.

The Saints (12-6-4, 7-4-4 NCHA) will be back in action tomorrow night in a crucial matchup with the sixth-ranked St. Norbert Green Knights (12-5-5, 9-4-2 NCHA) with an opportunity to end the night in a tie for first.  The 4 p.m. puck drop at Mars Lakeview Arena can be seen live on GameCentral at csssaints.com.