While the debate about which Division III college men's hockey team is No. 1 isn't over, there wasn't any doubt who the best team was during Saturday night's Northern Collegiate Hockey Association game between St. Scholastica and Wisconsin-Superior.
The Saints started quickly with three goals in the first period -- one by A.J. Tucker, who added three more in a 7-2 win before a racuous crowd of 1,689 spectators at Duluth's Mars Lakeview Arena.
Tucker, who celebrated his 25th birthday two days ago, needed only 62 seconds of the second period to score a power-play goal to make it 4-0, then tallied again at 4:02 when he flipped the puck past UWS goaltender Chad Beiswenger while falling backward on the ice for a 5-1 advantage. He added his 11th of the season midway through the third period to move the fourth-ranked Saints (14-3-1 overall, 5-2 NCHA) two points closer to conference-leading andsecond-ranked UWS (15-2-1,6-1), which had its Division III-leading unbeaten streak snapped at 14.
"For sure, we'd rather be No. 1 in the conference [than in the country] -- that's our main goal," Tucker said.
Joey Martini, Tucker and Jordan Chong scored first-period goals as the Saints took an early lead.
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"We did stress that we had to get off to a fast start," Saints coach Mark Wick said. "We were able to have success early and it gave us confidence."
Martini went 1-on-1 with a defenseman and poked the puck past Beiswenger at 4:42 of the first period for his 10th goal of the season. Tucker made it 2-0 at 12:53 when he knocked in the puck after it sat loose in the slot for several moments. That goal came near the end of a power play dominated by St. Scholastica, which had a 12-1 shot advantage during the middle half of the period.
Chong scored his 11th goal, tying Trevor Geiger and Tucker for the team lead, at 14:58.
"That was huge," Tucker said. "We got off to a quick start and that gave us a lot of energy."
The Yellowjackets owned a 17-5 shots-on-goal edge in the second period, getting goals from Kevin Huck and Chris Wilson, but Saints goalie Steve Bounds kept them from turning the game around. The senior finished with 36 saves.
"They outplayed us in every aspect," UWS coach Dan Stauber said. "They had the momentum right from the start and we couldn't get that momentum back. They kept feeding off it and things went downhill in a hurry."
St. Scholastica continued its 10-game win streak, the longest since the program's early days in the 1970s. Despite possibly winning the biggest regular-season game in school history and a potential No. 1 ranking looming, the Saints were more focused on a conference race that has them in a three-way tie for second.
"We could be No. 1 in the country and could be fourth in our league [depending how tiebreakers work out]," Wick said. "Everybody out there is looking at the rankings, but what's more valuable is the two points."
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Wisconsin-Superior 0-2-0--2
St. Scholastica 3-2-2--7
First period -- 1. CSS, Joey Martini (A.J. Tucker, Rob Rodgers), 4:42; 2. CSS, Tucker (Carter Davis, Martini), 12:53 (pp); 3. CSS, Jordan Chong (Trevor Geiger), 14:58.
Second period -- 4. CSS, Tucker (Dustin DeGagne, Davis), 1:02 (pp) ; 5. UWS, Kevin Huck (Tyler Fletcher, Josh Seifert), 3:08; 6. CSS, Tucker (Martini), 4:02 ; 7. UWS, Chris Wilson (Logan Isley), 10:40 (pp).
Third period -- 8. CSS, Tucker (Jeremy Dawes, Martini), 10:22; 9. CSS, Dawes (Davis, Dennis Kubat), 17:19.
Saves -- Chad Beiswenger, UWS, 25; Steve Bounds, CSS, 35.
