Senior night turned out to be pretty special for St. Thomas, particularly for Spencer Zwiener, who scored a pair of goals, including the game winner in a 4-3 victory over St. Mary’s Friday.
Zwiener scored his second and final goal with 4:39 to play in the third to snap a 3-3 tie and catapult the Tommies to a win in their final home game of the year.
St. Thomas will play out the remainder of its schedule on the road, with three games over the next nine days.
Jacob Berger stepped up and stopped 34 shots as the Tommies improved to 4-1-1. Berger and the Tommies turned away all three of the power-play opportunities by the Cardinals.
Austin Nault and Josh Maucieri both scored their first collegiate goals and Kimball Johnson tallied two assists. All three players are freshmen.
The Tommies weren’t the only team that enjoyed the thrill of victory this past week. Below is a look at how other games on the slate played out in the west region. Regular-season play wrapped up in both the NCHA and WIAC.
Down to the wire
Saint Mary’s and Bethel are no strangers to thrillers. The last they met, the Cardinals prevailed by a goal.
History repeated itself Saturday.
And this time it was Tommy Stang punching in the game winner. He scored 1:51 into overtime to lift the Cardinals to a 6-5 come-from-behind win over the Royals.
Saint Mary’s built a 3-1 lead only to see it erased by the Royals, who scored four consecutive goals to grab a 5-3 advantage.
Sam Hanson cut the deficit to 5-4 and Bud Winter tied the score at 5-5 before Stang delivered in a clutch moment in OT.
Al Rogers racked up 34 saves, including 19 in the second period, while Travis Allen of Bethel tallied 36 saves. The Cardinals improved to 5-3 overall and to 3-1 in the MIAC.
The Royals fell to 2-4 overall and to 0-2 in the conference. Carter Wagner led the Royals with two goals and an assist.
Strong finish for the Pointers
Wisconsin-Stevens Point and Northland played to a 2-2- tie in the opening game of their series Wednesday but the story was decidedly different Friday as the Pointers rolled to a 6-1 win.
Harrison Stewart helped lead the way. The rookie scored a goal and dished out two assists. Ryan Orgel and Brandon McReynolds each tallied a goal and an assist while Cody Moline handed out three assists in the final game of the regular season for the Pointers.
Ryan Wagner made five saves in the victory on a night when the Pointers clamped down on defense, allowing just six shots, the lowest shots allowed total in program history.
Falcons clinch top seed
Wisconsin-River Falls will be the No. 1 seed in the WIAC tournament after a successful series against Wisconsin-Eau Claire.
The Falcons and Blugolds played to a 1-1 tie Wednesday before UW-River Falls skated to a 2-0 win Friday.
Christian Hausinger and Charlie Singerhouse both scored for the Falcons, who improved to 6-3-1 on the season. The goal for Singerhouse was his sixth of the season. The Falcons are unbeaten in their last three games.
A sweep for Superior
Wisconsin-Superior won both games of its series against Wisconsin-Stout this past week, winning the opener 6-3 on Wednesday before taking down the Blue Devils 4-1 Friday.
Now 5-3 on the season, the Yellowjackets’ sweep assures them of the forth seed in the conference tourney.
Chad Lopez struck for two goals while David Kaplan and Coltyn Bates also punched in goals for UW-Superior, which scored twice in the third period to finish off the victory. One of those goals in the third came from Lopez, who now has five goals on the season.
Myles Hektor started his second consecutive game in goal and stopped 31 shots to stay unbeaten. He owns a 2-0 record.
Bulldogs are champs again
Adrian repeated as champions of the NCHA by rolling over Trine 11-1 Saturday. The Bulldogs are 15-5 overall and finish the regular season with an 8-0 record in conference play.
Four players scored two goals apiece with Ryan Butler, Trevor Coykendall, Andrew Bellant and Sam Ruffin all accomplishing the feat. Jaden Shields scored one goal and dished out two assists for the Bulldogs, who are 13-0 all-time against the Thunder.
Nic Tallarico stopped 21 shots to earn his third win in goal while helping Adrian stretch its win streak to 11 consecutive games. The Bulldogs have outscored their opposition 64-15 during the streak and have been crowned regular-season champions 12 times in program history.
Foresters win finale
Lake Forest played its final game of the year Saturday and emerged with a win, knocking off Aurora 2-1.
David Cohen punched in both goals for the Foresters, who managed to get in only six games during a challenging season played amid the COVID-19 pandemic. They finish the year 1-5.
Eight seniors were honored at the game. The crew helped Lake Forest fashion a 46-32-11 record over the last four seasons. Seniors Joey Sardina and Troy Nelson both assisted on Cohen’s first goal of the night.
Vikings rally for a win
Lawerence trailed 2-0 against Finlandia before battling back for a 5-2 to complete a series sweep of the Lions Saturday.
The Vikings are 4-4 on the year. They scored three goals in the second period to take control and added two more goals in the final period.
Tyler Jensen and Will Robertson both scored a goal and dished out an assist while Kyle Gierman came through with two assists. James Scott and Davis Kirkendall both scored goals as well for the Vikings, who finish the regular season in third place in the North Division.
