Box Score
STEVENS POINT, Wis. – Saint John's hockey ended its weekend trip in Wisconsin with a 5-2 loss at top-ranked Wisconsin-Stevens Point on Saturday, Nov. 12.
The defending NCAA Division III champions, Stevens Point (5-0-1, 0-0-0 WIAC) had two players kicked out of the game due to game-misconduct penalties and narrowly out-shot SJU (3-2-1, 1-1-0 MIAC) by a 28-25 margin on net. The Pointers scored two power-play goals, an empty-netter and another with an extra attacker in the game.
Following a scoreless first period, Eliot Grauer gave the Pointers a 1-0 lead 1:57 into the second frame and Jacob Barber made it 2-0 with a power-play goal 3:23 later.
UWSP's Baxter Kanter was whistled for a two-minute minor for hitting after the whistle, a five-minute major and a game misconduct for head-butting nine seconds after Barber's goal. Junior forward
Huba Sekesi (Germering, Germany) cut the Pointers' lead in half with a power-play goal, his first tally of the season, 15 seconds into the man advantage.
Grauer scored his second goal of the game to extend the Pointers' lead to 3-1 at the 17:36 mark with an extra attacker due to a delayed penalty on SJU. He scored two goals in the 3-2 UWSP win in the last meeting between the two teams on Nov. 14, 2015, in St. Cloud.
Willem Nong-Lambert, a transfer from Division I Western Michigan, made it 4-1 after stuffing in a power-play goal just nine seconds into a man advantage 8:19 into the third period.
Freshman forward
Brady Heppner (Crookston, Minn.) cut it to 4-2 with his second goal in as many nights after he stole an errant UWSP pass and beat the goaltender top shelf with 2:33 remaining in the game.
Lawrence Cornellier ended the scoring with an empty-net goal at the 18:10 mark.
Freshman goaltender
Andrew Lindgren (Minneapolis, Minn.) made 23 saves in the loss.
Like last night's 3-3 tie at Wisconsin-Eau Claire, SJU played with 13 skaters (of the 18) that were either freshmen or sophomores.
The Johnnies return to conference play with their home opener against Hamline at 7 p.m. this Thursday, Nov. 17, at the Herb Brooks National Hockey Center in St. Cloud.
