Box Score DULUTH, Minn. (csssaints.com) – The problem for the St. Scholastica men's hockey team on Saturday night was it was playing an unranked University of Wisconsin-River Falls squad. The Falcons jumped out to a 5-1 lead and held off the Saints to win 7-5 in the Northern Collegiate Hockey Association (NCHA) regular season finale at Mars Lakeview Arena.
Even with the loss, the Saints clinched the No. 4 seed for next weekend's first round of the Peters Cup playoffs, due to the UW-Superior falling to UW-Eau Claire. The Saints will host the Yellowjackets next Friday and Saturday at Mars Lakeview Arena.
The Saints, who had beaten fourth-ranked St. Norbert College, 14th-ranked UW-Stevens Point and fourth-ranked UW-Eau Claire in their last three games, had trouble with the unranked Falcons tonight.
After a scoreless nine minutes, the Falcons scored three goals in less than six minutes to take a 3-0 lead.
Dylan Nowakowski (Calgary, Alberta/Centennial HS (Brooks-AJHL) ) scored for CSS with less than five minutes left in the opening period to make it 3-1 at the first intermission. His brother,
Brandon Nowakowski (Calgary, Alberta/Central Memorial HS (Calgary Royals-AJHL)), had the assist.
The second period began with the Saints being called for two penalties, one of which being a five minute major. The Falcons capitalized on both to make it 5-1. At that point, last night's hero for St. Scholastica,
Colin Rundell (Tees, Alberta/Lacombe Composite (Alaska-Fairbanks) ), would be replaced by
Tyler Bruggeman (North Mankato, Minn./Mankato West HS (Austin-NAHL) ).
Chad Golanowski (Calgary, Alberta/Bishop Carroll HS (Calgary Canucks-AJHL) ) cut the margin to 5-2 with his third goal of the season.
Garet Chumley (Cambridge, Minn./Cambridge-Isanti HS (Jersey-EJHL) ) was credited with the assist.
Brandon Nowakowski (Calgary, Alberta/Central Memorial HS (Calgary Royals-AJHL)) then made it 5-3 with 3:23 left in the second period. D. Nowakowski and
Paul Marcoux (Brandon, Manitoba /Vincent Massey Collegiate (Waywayseecappo-MJHL) ) had the assists.
River Falls (12-9-4, 5-9-4 NCHA) was able to get one those goals back 46 seconds later on a Jake Calleja goal to make it 6-3 at the second intermission.
CSS continued to fight to get back into the game as
Brett Corcoran (Parksville, British Columbia/Ballenas Secondary (Trail Smoke-BCHL) ) scored his 12th of the season with 12:19 remaining.
Brenden Bradbury (Winnipeg, Manitoba/Monticello HS/Vincent Massey Collegiate (Waywayseecappo-MJHL) ) and
Alex Valenti (Blaine, Wash./Bellingham HS (Merritt-BCHL) ) had the assists. The Saints then cut it to one when
Tyler Miller (Fort Frances, Ontario/Rainy River HS (Thunder Bay-SIJHL) ) scored on the power-play with less than seven minutes to go.
But it was the Falcons responding again as Geoff Shewmake completed the hat trick with less than four minutes to go to make the final score 7-5.
Both Rundell and Bruggeman made seven saves with Bruggeman picking up the loss for the Saints. Scott Lewan had 29 saves for the Falcons.
The Saints (11-13-1, 7-10-1 NCHA) and Yellowjackets will have a fitting end to the NCHA Bridge Battle when they meet in the first round of the Peters Cup playoffs next Friday and Saturday at Mars Lakeview Arena. If neither team can earn at least three points in the two game series a 20-minute mini-game will be played immediately after game two on Saturday. You can catch all of the action live on Saints Sports Net.
