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LEWISTON, Maine — Wisconsin-Stevens Point is heading to the Division III national championship game after holding on in a 2-1 victory over Oswego Friday night.
The Pointers become the first Pool B bid team to reach the national finals.
“I thought special teams was the difference tonight,” Wisconsin-Stevens Point coach Chris Brooks said. “That big five-on-three kill for us and a big power-play goal to make it 2-1.”
The Lakers (22-7-2) had golden opportunities to start the third period with 1:45 of 5-on-3 man advantage, but couldn’t get a second goal past Brandon Jaeger, who made 45 saves in the victory.
Oswego coach Ed Gosek said he changed the power play up a little bit this week.
“Well, we weren’t good enough in that area,” Gosek said.””We changed it this week as the guys will tell you – we have a simple saying at our program – ‘What are you doing and how’s it working?’ Last weekend, we had a 5-on-3 at Babson and we didn’t convert. We had other 5-on-3s during the year, we changed it up a little bit. We gave the guys a fresh outlook, but it didn’t materialize.”
Oswego went 0-for-2 with the man-advantage, while the Pointers (22-5-2) converted on their only opportunity of the night on the game-winner.
The Lakers got on the board just past the midway mark of the first period to jump out to the 1-0 lead. Shawn Hulshof camped out by the left post as he waited for a cross-ice pass from David Titanic for the goal.
“I may be biased towards our guys, but I am very proud of their effort,” Gosek said. “They did it as a team right down to the last few seconds.”
The Pointers tied the game with a minute remaining in the first period when Kyle Sharkey jammed it past Oswego goaltender Matt Zawadzski on the second chance. Assists went to Joe Kalisz and Kyle Brodie.
“It brought guys back from the edge,” Kalisz said of the tying goal. “It gave us momentum going into the second.”
Kalisz recorded his second point of the contest when he scored from the left circle with 2:59 remaining in the second period on the power play. Alex Brooks and Tyler Krueger were credited the assists.
Zawadzki made 29 saves in a strong effort in the loss.
