A one-in-a-hundred shot for Wisconsin-Superior’s Kris Wilson was more like one in a million.
Wilson’s slapshot from a step inside the red line caught the top left corner of the net to end an overtime thriller for the NCHA’s Peters Cup, giving the Yellowjackets a 4-3 victory over top seed and host St. Norbert.
“He’s been able to score some big-time goals for us,” Superior coach Dan Stauber said of Wilson, who lifted the Yellowjackets to their third straight Peters Cup as NCHA playoff champion and an automatic berth in the NCAA tournament.
Wilson’s blast stunned St. Norbert (23-4-2) and its home crowd of 1,645 at the Cornerstone Community Ice Center.
“It’s disappointing,” St. Norbert coach Tim Coghlin said. “It’s not disillusioning.”
It also, perhaps for the first time this year, put the Knights out of a position in which they control things. They’ll wait with everyone else for Sunday’s announcement of the nine teams for the Division III tournament, hoping to get one of the two at-large bids.
“We lost control of our fate,” Coghlin said. “We had ample opportunities. … (But) we still played our backsides off.”
The loss was Gill’s first this season after 16 wins and two ties.
Andy Trann scored twice for St. Norbert; Colin Kendall had two goals for Superior.
Trann got the Knights on the board first, sliding a redirected centering pass between the pads of Superior goaltender Nathan Ziemski at 3:52.
The teams combined for three goals in 60 seconds a few minutes later, with the end result a 2-2 game.
Jay Stewart and Kendall scored 38 seconds apart for a 2-1 Superior lead, but St. Norbert’s Jason Deitsch leveled the game again on a tip-in.
Superior regained the lead before the end of the third period on Kendall’s second goal, a power-play score at 10:39. He tapped in the rebound of a Randall Smisko shot.
But St. Norbert again had an answer, with Trann scoring at 7:01 of the second period.
