For years the Yellowjacket men's hockey team and St. Norbert College have enjoyed a rivalry steeped in tradition since the Green Knights entered the NCHA in the early 1990s. The teams have met in dozens of regular season games and the playoff meetings will go down in lore for both programs, as it seemed that more often than not the road to the NCAA tournament went through the home ice of one or the other.

On Saturday afternoon at the Cornerstone Community Center, the Yellowjackets and the Green Knights squared off for the final regular season meeting between the teams as conference opponents. After this season the Yellowjackets will head off to the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) while St. Norbert will become a member of the Midwest Collegiate Hockey Association (MCHA) as the NCHA will dissolve on the men's side.

And as has been the case so many times on St. Norbert's home ice, the Green Knights jumped on the Yellowjackets early and they were unable to recover.

Just like on Friday night the Yellowjackets took an early penalty and surrendered a power play goal.  They never led and dropped the afternoon tilt, 4-1 to the Green Knights.

The loss is the third consecutive defeat for the Yellowjackets (11-11-1, 6-9-1 NCHA), who now find themselves teetering on the cusp of home ice in the playoffs. They currently sit in fourth place with two games remaining, but have several teams chasing them down as the final week approaches.

St. Norbert opened the scoring with Nick Stoskopf (Warroad, Minn./Warroad) off for elbowing. Cody Keefer completed a text book 2-on-1 rush, taking a pass from Kyle Stroh and one-timing a shot from the left circle that beat Yellowjacket goaltender Drew Strandberg (Thunder Bay, Ontario/Westgate CV&I) to make it 1-0 just 3:18 into the game.

Later in the period Keefer struck again, this time coming off the left wing boards following a faceoff and skating to the slot where wristed a shot past Strandberg on the stick side to make it 2-0 at 18:12.

In the second period, traditionally their roughest period of the game, the Yellowjackets ramped things up and carried the play, outshooting St. Norbert 11-6 in the frame. On an early power play Pat Dalbec (Superior, Wis./Superior Senior) got a perfect centering pass and let a one-timer go, only to have it hit the post and stay out of the goal.

Before the second period was done the Green Knights used a little good luck to add to the lead.

An errant clearing pass was held in the zone by Carl Ekstrom who sent it deep behind the Yellowjacket goal. There, Connor Bradshaw centered to Brandon Hoogenboom whose backhand shot snuck between Strandberg's pads to make it a 3-0 lead with 2:42 left in the second period.

The dagger came for St. Norbert in the opening minute of the third period. Keefer had the puck in the left corner and threw it to the front of the net where it deflected off the skate of Stroh and past Strandberg to increase the lead to 4-0 just 20 seconds in.

The Yellowjackets finally broke through three minutes later on the power play. Tanner Dion (Hardisty, Alberta/Central Sedgewick) fed a pass to Dalbec in the left circle and his wrist shot eluded St. Norbert goaltender David Jacobson to get the Yellowjackets back to within three at 4-1. It was the team-leading 15th goal of the season for Dalbec.

As the third period wore on the Yellowjackets continued to apply pressure, only to be turned away by Jacobson time and again.

With time running out the Green Knights implemented a trapping forecheck to perfection, keeping the Yellowjackets pinned on their own half of the ice and salting away the win.

It was a big game for Keefer, who led the Green Knights with two goals and an assist. Stroh had a goal and an assist and Ekstrom a pair of assists to pace the St. Norbert offense.

Jacobson picked up the win, finishing the game with 27 saves. At the other end, Strandberg made 15 saves for the Yellowjackets.

Each team was called for four penalties totaling eight minutes. Both teams went 1-for-2 on the power play in the game.

The Yellowjackets return to action for the final weekend of the 2012-13 season on Friday, February 8 when they host UW-River Falls at Wessman Arena. Game time is scheduled for 7:05 p.m. and can be heard live on 91.3 FM KUWS beginning with the pre-game show at 6:45 p.m. If you are outside the local listening area you can listen online through the iFan Sports Network. You can also watch the game live on pay-per-view through UW-Superior's online content provider, AmericaOne. Jon Garver will have the call.