{"id":31114,"date":"2010-03-10T13:35:30","date_gmt":"2010-03-10T19:35:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.uscho.com\/2010\/03\/10\/ncaa-diii-first-round-st-norbert-vs-adrian\/"},"modified":"2010-08-17T19:57:55","modified_gmt":"2010-08-18T00:57:55","slug":"ncaa-diii-first-round-st-norbert-vs-adrian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wwwproxy.uscho.com\/2010\/03\/10\/ncaa-diii-first-round-st-norbert-vs-adrian\/","title":{"rendered":"NCAA D-III First Round: St. Norbert vs. Adrian"},"content":{"rendered":"
After a year hiatus, St. Norbert returns to the NCAA tournament for the 11th time in the past 14 seasons, and first since winning the 2008 national championship.<\/p>\n
The Green Knights rolled to the NCHA Peters Cup title with a pair of 7-1 playoff wins over UW-Stevens Point in the semifinals and the University of Wisconsin-River Falls in the finals. It marked the eighth time overall and sixth in the past eight seasons the Green Knights have claimed the NCHA postseason crown.<\/p>\n
Despite being the top seed in the West Region, St. Norbert will face Adrian on Wednesday in a first round game rather than being awarded a spot straight to the quarterfinals. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the first time in the history of the Division III tournament the top West seed will not open play in the quarterfinals. At first glance, Green Knights head coach Tim Coghlin wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t sure what to make of the situation.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t really know,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Coghlin, who is a jaw dropping 218-34-22 in his last eight plus seasons. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153In the 20 years I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been doing this we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve never played in one of these games on a Wednesday. It looks odd to see four teams in our region where it would seem to make sense to have two quarterfinals, so to have all four playing on Wednesday does look like a bit of an odd schedule.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153At the end of the day, however, if you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re going to be successful you just play whoever is next and I think that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the mentality we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve tried to drive home down the stretch. You can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t control who or when you play, you just have to control how you play.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
The meeting with Adrian will mark new ground for both teams as this will be the first meeting ever between the schools.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve never seen them even,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Coghlin said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Clearly they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got guys who can put the puck in the net and at the same time, clearly, if anyone feels like they have something to prove certainly they feel that way, too, after having not been asked to the big dance for two consecutive years\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Despite not having seen the Bulldogs in person, Coghlin remains aware of what they will bring to the table upon rolling into the Cornerstone.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Those top two lines seem to put up an awful lot of points. They have some things working in their favor and they are not going to come in an under-confident group. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think coming into the Cornerstone is going to faze them one bit.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
As far as the St. Norbert itself goes, they enter the tournament on a downright tear and are riding a 10 game unbeaten streak since dropping a 5-1 contest at UW-Eau Claire on January 16. Since that loss the Green Knights have failed to concede more than one goal in a game. As it was with the 2008 championship squad, stifling defense has been the prevailing theme, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s one Coghlin appears pleased with.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a hallmark of our teams every year and some teams buy into it harder than others,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153With this year\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s team the lights just sort of went on a little bit after that lull and we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve played much better defensively. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think we are doing anything spectacular but we are making other teams earn their stripes.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
The St. Norbert offense has been equally as impressive down the stretch, having posted 24 goals in their last four contests. What\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s even scarier is that it has been incredibly difficult to predict where the goals might come from as they have nine players with over 18 points but none with more than 28. In similar fashion, the Green Knights wield nine players with at least eight goals on the year, but none have tallied more than 13.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We had played well the week before coming off the bye and basically we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re as healthy as we can be,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Coghlin said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re playing a very complete game right now and that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s good, but I still think we have a better 60 minutes in us and that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what we keep striving for.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
The matchup with Adrian is one many Division III faithful have been clamoring about for the better part of three years and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s finally upon us — and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s in the NCAA tournament. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the hockey version of the immovable object versus the unstoppable force and was, perhaps, put most eloquently by Coghlin himself:<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153At this time of the year it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s about who is playing their game the best and whether you can impose your will on the opposition. We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been pretty successful with that and we do get the home game which we are glad about, so we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll have to wait and see.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Finally, the time has come. A MCHA team will finally be duly represented in the NCAA tournament as Adrian battled through the Harris Cup playoffs last weekend to claim the league\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s first ever automatic qualification bid into the tournament. It marked the third playoff title in as many years for the Bulldogs, but this time it doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t mark the end of the road for the MCHA champion.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It was great to win the MCHA playoffs knowing there is a tangible goal at the end and we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re excited now to move onto the NCAA tournament,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Bulldogs head coach Ron Fogarty, who is 77-7-1 in his third season.<\/p>\n
Despite being overwhelming favorites and playing at home, the Bulldogs squeaked out a pair of one goal wins over Lawrence and Marian to claim its spot in the field. In the title contest against Marian, Adrian rallied from a 2-1 deficit after two periods to score a dramatic 3-2 win on a goal with only 44 seconds remaining.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We knew the games were going to be tighter,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Fogarty said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Both Marian and Lawrence played great and those are the types of games you need heading into the tournament. We were getting banged up and knocked around a little bit by both of them and it forced us to be very particular and detail oriented.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n