DE PERE - St. Norbert College won the first round of a key two-game Northern Collegiate Hockey Association series against Trine University with a 2-1 victory at Cornerstone Community Center.

The Green Knights (12-0, 7-0 NCHA), ranked No. 2 in the USCHO.com Division III Poll, handed seventh-ranked Trine (9-1-1, 5-1-1) its first loss of the season in a hard-hitting, hotly contested affair.

St. Norbert had a pair of power-play chances in the first period but couldn't convert as the first period ended scoreless.

Trine had a power-play chance carry over into the second period, but it was the Green Knights who registered the game's first goal when Logan Dombrowsky scored shorthanded 48 seconds into the stanza. Carter Hottmann assisted on Dombrowsky's ninth goal of the season. That marker would hold up as the game's lone goal heading into second intermission.

The Thunder clapped back early in the third period, when Jack Cooper finished in a flurry at the net just 23 seconds in. It didn't take long for St. Norbert to respond, with Byron Hartley deking a Trine defender to feed Cameron Morris (pictured) to finish off a 2-on-1 chance at 2:29.

Trine would get a golden chance to tie the game when it went on the power play with 4:11 to go, but the Green Knights killed it off. The defense would continue to stand firm in the last 1:33, with Trine pulling its goaltender for an extra attacker but coming up scoreless.

St. Norbert outshot Trine 31-24. Hunter Garvey made 23 saves for the Green Knights, while Cristian Wong-Ramos made 29 stops for the Thunder.

The Green Knights were 0-for-2 on the power play, while Trine was 0-for-3.