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Trinity Hockey Goes For National Title Tonight – Hartford Courant
Trinity’s path to a possible second men’s hockey national championship in three seasons will be blocked on Saturday by Division III’s top-ranked team. Norwich (26-1-3) is trying to win its fourth national championship.
Just after the Bantams defeated St. Norbert 3-2 at the Utica Memorial Auditorium on Friday, the Cadets defeated Adrian 5-4 in overtime after squandering a two-goal lead in the third period.
“It doesn’t matter anymore,” Cadets coach Mike McShane said. “The only thing that matters is what’s in the future. The only thing that matters is the next 20 minutes we’ve got. That’s all we have control over. We didn’t even talk about it. We just talked about what we were going to do for systems, put lines together and doing a good job.”
Freshman forward Ian Williams scored 11:40 into overtime to lift Norwich to its fifth national championship game. The Cadets (26-1-3) set a new program record with the victory, extending their unbeaten streak to 24 straight games, surpassing the 2000 national championship team’s run of 23. They have not lost since Nov. 18 and have tied only two games.
Williams flipped a shot toward the net from the right corner that bounced off Adrian goalie Kevin Entmaa’s pad and trickled inside the right post.
“I have never scored as big of a goal in my career, that’s for sure,” Williams said. ” I have scored a few (overtime goals) in Junior and Midget but other than that, I usually don’t really come in clutch all that often. (All I thought was) get it to the net. I didn’t want to miss and I was thinking I might’ve had a little bit of space to beat the goalie but I didn’t get all of it. Things worked out and I got a good bounce and it took us to the next step.”
Norwich, of Northfield, Vt., had previously defeated Salem State 3-1 in the first round and Hamilton College 6-2 in the quarterfinal round on March 18.
Norwich is making its 17th NCAA appearance and 12th trip to the Division III Frozen Four. They won their first three national championships in 2000, 2003 and 2010.
McShane is in his 22nd season at the school. He recorded his 700th career victory earlier this season, becoming just the seventh coach at any level in NCAA history to accomplish the feat. He previously coached at St. Lawrence and Providence. McShane has guided the Cadets to18 of the last 19 league regular season championships.
Meanwhile, Trinity senior captain defenseman Sam Johnson beat St. Norbert goalie T.J. Black late in the second period for his first goal of the season to lift Trinity over the Green Knights. The Bantams (21-6-3) have won 11 straight.
“That [St. Norbert] was a very good hockey team that we were fortunate enough to beat,” Trinity coach Matt Greason said. “I like the way we fought back from some early opportunities and especially how we played in the second and early in the third before we had to withstand some pressure they put on us.”