Notables
-A total of 28 penalties for 104 minutes.
-Adrian is ranked #3 in the country and is currently tied for first place in the NCHA with St. Norbert
-CSS scored three goals in the third period after being down 5-1 after two
-The game lasted just shy of two and a half hours

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DULUTH, Minn. (csssaints.com) – The No. 14 St. Scholastica men's hockey team fell to No. 3 Adrian College (Mich.) by a final score of 5-4 Friday in game one of the final series of the season at Mars Lakeview Arena.
 
First Period
CSS would go down early in the first period when Adam Davies put the puck past Saints goaltender Tyler Bruggeman (North Mankato, Minn./Mankato West HS (Austin-NAHL) ) just 3:57 into the game to give Adrian a 1-0 lead.

The Bulldogs would go up by a score of 2-0 later in the period on a shot by Trevor Boyd that found the back of the net with under seven minutes left.
 
Despite an onslaught of CSS shots after the second Adrian goal, they could not find an answer for the Adrian defense as the first period ended with a score of 2-0 Bulldogs.

Second Period
Just 33 seconds into the second period Adrian would tally a short-handed goal to put themselves up by three goals.
 
The Saints would get on the board six minutes later on another power play when Dylan Nowakowski (Calgary, Alberta/Centennial HS (Brooks-AJHL) ) took a Steven Phee (Balzac, Alberta/George McDougall HS (Canmore-AJHL) ) pass and put it past the Adrian goaltender to cut the deficit to 3-1 with just over 13 minutes to play in the second period.
 
The 3-1 score would hold for the majority of the period until the Bulldogs tallied two late goals to take a 5-1 lead into the second intermission.
 
First with 2:40 to go in the period Austin Hervey would score an unassisted goal to make the score 4-1, then with just 36 seconds left after two CSS penalties Chris Leone would score a 5-on-3 goal to set the score at 5-1.
 
Third Period
The Saints would tally two goals in the first 14 minutes of the third period cutting the Adrian lead in half.
 
First Keegan Bruce (Bellingham, Wash./Bellingham HS (Weyburn-SJHL) ) would score a power play goal with assists by Michael Spring (Kelowna, British Columbia/Okanagan Mission (Chilliwack-BCHL) ) and Brandon Millin (Port Moody, British Columbia/Heritage Woods HS (Notre Dame Hounds-SJHL) ) to make the score 5-2 with 16:02 to go in the game.
 
About 10 minutes later, Bruce would score a second goal, this time unassisted, to set the score at 5-3 with just over six minutes to play.
 
The game looked in hand for Adrian with just over four minutes to play, but a late surge by the Saints made the last few minutes very interesting as Ryan Cooper (New Westminster, British Columbia/New Westminster Secondary (Dauphin-MJHL) ) scored the third goal of the period for CSS with Kristofer McKinzie (Duluth, Minn./Duluth Marshall School (Minnesota Magicians-NAHL)) adding the assist.
 
After the Cooper goal CSS found themselves down by just one goal after beginning the period down by four. 
 
Unfortunately, for the Saints they could not complete the comeback as play became rather chippy as a slew of after the whistle penalties delayed the end of the game, but in the end the Bulldogs prevailed 5-4.
 
Bruggeman finished the game with 32 saves on 37 shots, while Bruce finished with his two goals on six shots.
 
Up Next
St. Scholastica (14-7-3, 12-6-1 NCHC) will play Adrian again tomorrow at 5 p.m. for the regular season finale at Mars Lakeview Arena.