UTICA, N.Y. -- Nationally-ranked Oswego State never trailed on Saturday night and defeated No. 8 Utica College 5-3 in a battle of top-15 teams at the Utica Memorial Auditorium. Oswego's win comes in the form of a rematch as these two teams recently faced off in the PathFinder Bank/Oswego State Hockey Classic last week. The Lakers and Pioneers tied 2-2 in that contest, with Oswego earning the championship with a 2-1 shootout win.
With the win, Oswego improves to 9-2-2 on the season.
In the first period, Oswego was the first to strike, take advantage of a power-play at 8:17. Mike Montagna notched the goal on an assist from Matt Galati. Montagna was named the most outstanding player of the PathFinder Bank Classic last weekend after the Lakers championship win.
The Pioneers knotted up the score a little more eight minutes later but Oswego would not go to the intermission without an advantage. Just 17 second later, Brandon Adams scored his sixth goal of the season in unassisted fashion to give the Lakers a 2-1 edge headed to the break.
At 13:22 in the second period, Oswego grew its lead to two goals with another power-play score, this time from Dylan Smith. Chris Carr and Mac Scott earned assists on the tally helping give the Lakers a 3-1 lead.
Utica used a short-handed goal at 15:29 to again cut the Oswego lead to just one goal at 3-2. The two teams played a scoreless final 4:30 of the second period to send the game to the final period with the same score.
Oswego would stretch its lead all the way to 5-2 with two goals in the third. Kenny Neil scored the first insurance goal just 3:23 into the period. The goal came off a pass from Montagna and proved to be the game winner.
Galati then scored on a power play after the Lakers warded off a short-handed situation of its own. His goal came at 15:38 and was assisted by Neil. Galati's goal was his team-leading 11th of the year. Utica tallied a late goal but could not muster anything else again the Lakers.
No. 1 Adrian 2, Gustavus Adolphus 0
SAINT PETER, Minn. -- One night after a scare from St. Olaf which resulted in a tie, Adrian played a very steady game defensively in a 2-0 win at Gustavus Adolphus on Saturday from Don Roberts Ice Rink. The Gusties entered the game tied for the third longest active unbeaten streak in NCAA Division III at eight games before Adrian's defense put a stop to that streak. Gustavus Adolphus is now 7-4-3 overall while the Bulldogs improved to 13-0-2 overall. The Bulldogs' 15-game unbeaten streak to start a season is best start in Adrian history and they also ran their road unbeaten streak to 28 games.
The Bulldogs recorded their fourth shutout of the season and their two goals tied for a season-low, but the goaltending of junior Scott Shackell made those goals stand up. Shackell improved to 5-0 in net this season and made a season-high 33 saves. In addition, it was Shackell's second shutout this season and the fifth of his career.
No. 2 Wisconsin-Stevens Point 2, No. 4 St. Norbert 2 (OT)
STEVENS POINT, Wis. – Kyle Sharkey and Scott Henegar scored for second-ranked Wisconsin-Stevens Point but fourth-ranked St. Norbert got a late goal from Blake Thompson to come away with a 2-2 tie in a non-conference top-five showdown on Saturday night at K.B. Willett Arena.
The Pointers (12-1-1) led 2-1 until the Green Knights (12-2-1) sent the game to overtime on Thompson's goal with 2:48 remaining. Both teams had chances in the five-minute overtime period, with Kyle Sharkey having two good chances for UWSP.
UW-Stevens Point trailed 1-0 five minutes into the game as Reid Campbell scored for St. Norbert. However, UWSP responded through Sharkey's fifth goal of the season on a 5-on-3. Sharkey's tying goal was assisted by Kevin Gibson and Garrett Ladd.
The game remained even at 1-1 until Scott Henegar put the Pointers ahead at the 6:55 mark of the third period. Henegar, who had a couple good scoring opportunities earlier in the game, found the back of the net for the eighth time this season from Alex Kromm and Alex Brooks.
The Green Knights outshot the Pointers in the game 33-27. Joe Kalisz had a game-high six shots for UW-Stevens Point. Brandon Jaeger made 31 saves in the tie, the first of the season for UWSP. David Jacobson kept out 25 shots for St. Norbert.
No. 3 Plattsburgh State 6, Castleton 1
PLATTSBURGH, N.Y. -- Faced with a 1-0 deficit after one period, No. 3 Plattsburgh State rattled off six unanswered goals en route to a 6-1 against Castleton in a non-league game Saturday night at the Stafford Ice Arena.
The Spartans (8-7-1) struck first, capitalizing on a late power play in the first period with a goal from Charles Bando to give Castleton a 1-0 lead at the end of one. Chris Stachiw picked up an assist on Bando's fifth of the year.
The Cardinals (12-1-2) rallied for the second consecutive evening when Michael Radisa tied it up at the 3:42 mark of the second period with his fourth of the year from Preston Kaye.
From that point on Plattsburgh State never looked back, rattling off three more goals in the middle stanza to silence Castleton State. With the Cardinals on the penalty kill, Luke Baleshta cleared the puck and found Alex Jensen on the rush up the right side. Jensen came in contact with Castleton goaltender Mark Hochman, who came out to break up the opportunity, which caused the loose puck to sail behind Hochman and into the empty net. The short-handed goal gave the Cardinals a 2-1 lead at 7:35 of the second.
Castleton took a pair of penalties at the midway point of the second period, giving Plattsburgh State a 5-on-3 that led to Graham Yeo's first collegiate goal. Yeo grabbed a loose puck along the boards and took a shot from the slot to give the Cardinals a 3-1 advantage.
Jensen added his second of the night at the 13:59 mark of the second period, beating Hochman on the glove side to make it 4-1 in favor of Plattsburgh State at the end of two periods of play.
Plattsburgh State added two more in the third to round out the scoring. Michael Cassidy buried a one-timer from Kevin Emmerling at 6:26 before Jensen completed the hat trick with 29 seconds left in regulation.
Mathieu Cadieux reclaimed his spot between the pipes for the Cardinals, stopping 23 of the 24 shots he faced to improve to 11-1-2. Hochman made 37 stops in the loss for Castleton.
No. 7 St. Thomas (Minn.) 3, Wisconsin-Superior 0
SAINT PAUL, Minn. -- Junior Drew Fielding had 19 saves and posted his 11th career shutout as No. 7 St. Thomas (Minn.) scored a 3-0 win against visiting Wisconsin-Superior in Saturday night’s non-conference play in Mendota Heights.
Tyler Gubb scored a goal and an assist; Alex Altenbernd had two assists; Michael Dockry had his first collegiate goal; and Alex Niestrom also scored.
UST scored twice in the game’s first 11:00 and never looked back.
Fielding, now 9-2-2 on the year, leads all NCAA Division I or III men's goalies this season with five shutouts.
Johnson & Wales 3, No. 9 Williams 2
PAWTUCKET, R.I. -- Junior captain Alex Porrier scored with just :42 left in overtime to lead Johnson & Wales to a thrilling 3-2 victory against seventh-ranked Williams in a non-conference contest at Lynch Arena/BVSC on Saturday afternoon. The win is the first against a ranked opponent in school history and JWU has now won six in a row.
Johnson & Wales got on the board first when senior Eddie Patterson put in a pass from freshman Michael Mazzotta and senior Justin Decowski at the 11:00 mark. The Wildcats took the 1-0 lead heading into the locker room at the first intermission.
Williams responded in the second period when a pair of power play goals less than three minutes apart put the Ephs up 2-1. Freshman Frankie Mork evened the score at 1-1 with a power play goal at the 11:57 mark while a power play goal by junior Craig Kitto at 14:55 put the Ephs ahead 2-1 after two periods of play.
At the 7:28 mark of the third period, JWU got a shorthanded, unassisted goal from sophomore Aaron Arm to knot the game at 2-2. Both teams had their chances down the stretch, but couldn't convert as regulation ended in the tie.
JWU controlled the action in the overtime stanza until Porrier's heroics, with assists to sophomore Cody Sarmiento and sophomore Luke Nickels gave the Wildcats the 3-2 victory.
Freshman Joey Ballmer tallied 39 saves in the win for JWU while junior Sean Dougherty had 19 stops in the loss for Williams. With the win JWU improves to 11-3 for the season while Williams falls to 8-2-2 on the year.
No. 10 Wisconsin-Eau Claire 4, Lawrence 0
EAU CLAIRE, Wis. -- Coming into the season, Wisconsin-Eau Claire had one pressing issue, replacing the backbone of their national championship team, goalie Brandon Stephenson, who was lost to graduation. With a 4-0 shutout win against Lawrence on Saturday night at Hobbs Ice Center, the Blugolds appear to have found their answer.
The duo of Tyler Green and Jay Deo have now notched four consecutive shutouts, breaking the previous record of two, that was set in the 2010-2011 season by Stephenson. The streak started in the final game before the break, when Deo shutout Lawrence on the road in a 5-0 victory. Green went on two pitch back-to-back shutouts on Tuesday and Friday night and Deo made 27 saves against the Vikings (4-10-1) to put up the fourth consecutive zero.
David Donnellan, Jon Waggoner, Mark Pustin and Ethan Nauman were scorers for Eau Claire.
