Wisconsin-Superior entered Friday night's game against St. Scholastica with the top seed already secured for the Northern Collegiate Hockey Association men's playoffs, but the Yellowjackets hadn't locked up the title of best Division III team in the Twin Ports.
Third-ranked St. Scholastica, by virtue of its five-goal win over the No. 2 Yellowjackets last month, had a chance to lay claim to that mythical crown by winning the return meeting before a standing-room only crowd of 1,876 spectators at Wessman Arena in Superior.
But Jeff Herman's goal midway through the third period broke a tie game and gave UWS a 4-3 win, wrapping up just the third outright NCHA regular-season title in school history.
"Obviously, to avenge the loss is nice," said Herman, a senior defenseman, "but now that we've won the league outright, it's very important. That's the first of our goals. Next, we have to win the [NCHA] playoffs and go to the [NCAA] final four and hopefully win that."
UWS (20-2-3 overall, 11-1-2 NCHA) hosts Lake Forest in a two-game Peters Cup quarterfinal series next weekend. St. Scholastica (18-5-2, 9-4-1) plays either Wisconsin-River Falls or Wisconsin-Eau Claire at home next week. If Eau Claire upends Wisconsin-Stevens Point tonight, the Blugolds would earn the sixth seed and a trip to Mars Lakeview Arena.
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"Something tells me we might see each other again in the playoffs," UWS coach Dan Stauber said of the Saints. "It's a great heavyweight matchup."
That would be fine with Saints coach Mark Wick.
"We played well enough to win that game, but in our league you don't leave yourself much room for errors and [UWS] capitalized on them," he said. "You always want to play well going into the playoffs. The results weren't what we wanted, but the effort was there."
Andrew McKenzie gave UWS a short-lived 3-2 lead at 2:50 of the third period when he poked in a rebound off a shot by Eric Bausano that goaltender Steve Bounds lost underneath him.
One minute later, A.J. Tucker deflected in a shot from the blueline for his team-high 16th goal to tie the game a third time. Tucker scored four times in the earlier win over UWS.
Herman, who joined the rush into the Saints' zone, then received a drop pass from Kevin Huck and ripped his game-winning wrist shot past Bounds at 10:55.
For Herman, who has missed five games this season to what he calls "upper-body injuries," his third goal of the season was worth the aches he's endured.
"I've battled through the pain," he said. "Doctors have been looking after me and kept me in the lineup."
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The Saints broke a 1-1 deadlock 10 seconds after Trevor Geiger left the penalty box for a tripping offense. The senior forward pounced on a rebound to the left of goaltender Chad Beiswenger after Joey Hughes sent a shot in from the left point 2:42 into the second period.
UWS tied it on a 5-on-3 power play set up by dual Saints penalties, the latter when Austin Brown purposely dove into Bounds to knock the net off its moorings. Chris Wilson scored his second goal of the game and his team-high 15th of the season with 48 seconds left in the period when he beat Bounds from the right wing.
The Saints scored first as Jordan Chong skated in on the left wing on a 2-on-1, took a pass from Matt Stengl and beat Beiswenger with a wrist shot at 5:28.
The goal came moments after Bounds stopped a pair of shots back-to-back, including Jeff Herman's rebound attempt from in close.
UWS responded 50 seconds into a power play as defenseman Brian Bina kept a clearing attempt in at the left point and passed to an undefended Wilson in the slot for the tying goal at 9:19.
Bounds finished with 31 saves, one more than Beiswenger.
St. Scholastica 1-1-1--3
Wisconsin-Superior 1-1-2--4
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First period -- 1. CSS, Jordan Chong (Matt Stengl, Trevor Geiger), 5:28; 2. UWS, Chris Wilson (Brian Bina), 9:19 (pp).
Second period -- 3. CSS, Geiger (Joey Hughes), 2:42; 4. UWS, Wilson (Logan Isley, Talon Berlando), 19:12 (pp).
Third period -- 5. Andrew McKenzie (Eric Bausano), 2:50; 6. CSS, A.J. Tucker (Rob Rodgers, Jeremy Dawes), 3:50; 7. UWS, Jeff Herman (Tyler Fletcher, Kevin Huck), 10:55.
Saves -- Steve Bounds, CSS, 31; Chad Beiswenger, UWS, 30.
