DE PERE - A shorthanded St. Norbert College men's hockey team churned out a gritty performance with a 5-2 win over Lake Forest College to finish off a two-game sweep of a Northern Collegiate Hockey Association series at Cornerstone Community Center.
Dressing just 17 skaters, two short of the limit, the Green Knights (11-6-1, 8-2 NCHA) pulled away from a 2-2 tie at the second intermission with three third-period goals. St. Norbert scored a pair of goals in the final three minutes of a 3-1 win in Friday's series opener.
Michael Spethmann scored at 2:55 of the third period to snap the tie and push St. Norbert ahead 3-2.
Brendan Aird then gave the Green Knights a big insurance goal with a power-play marker at 11:21. Spethmann then salted the game away with an empty-net goal at 17:48.
St. Norbert took a 1-0 lead after the first period when
Ben Schmidling scored at 10:12 of the first period for the only goal in the first 20 minutes. Lake Forest would counter with a goal from Colin Bella at 3:02 of the second period, but
Curtis Hammond scored at 9:09 of the second period to push St. Norbert ahead 2-1. Bella then registered a power-play goal at 11:05 to bring the Foresters level at 2-2.
Spethmann added an assist along with his two goals for a three-point game. Schmidling had a goal and two assists for three points, while
Liam Fraser registered three assists for three points.
Lake Forest outshot St. Norbert 29-27.
Johnny Roberts made 27 saves for the Green Knights, while Nick Wiencek made 22 stops for the Foresters.
Both teams were 1-for-3 on the power play.
