Men's Hockey 2/15/03 -- Augsburg 9, Northland (Wis.) 5 

BOXSCORE

ASHLAND, Wis. (2/15/03) -- Dave Nelson (Fr., Woodbury, Minn./South St. Paul HS) scored his first collegiate hat trick, and Joe Pontrelli (Jr., Eagan, Minn.) had two goals and an assist for a three-point afternoon, as Augsburg College completed its regular season with a 9-5 win over Northland College in a nonconference men's hockey game on Saturday afternoon.

Augsburg, which completed its Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference schedule last weekend, finishes its regular season at 17-8-0 with the victory, while Northland, a Midwest Collegiate Hockey Association member, drops to 3-18-2 overall, losing its third straight game and 14th in its last 16 games.

With no pressure to improve its postseason positioning, Augsburg played a young lineup, including giving senior goalie Rob Nickel (Sr., Prospect Heights, Ill./John Hersey HS) his first collegiate start in goal in his last regular-season game. While the Auggies held Northland scoreless in the first period, building a 3-0 lead, the host Lumberjacks scored five goals in the second period -- including a stretch of four straight goals -- to take its only lead of the series, 5-4, late in the second period.

The Northland rally drove Nickel from the game, after making 19 saves in 36 minutes, 48 seconds. The Auggies inserted their No. 1 goalie, Pete Samargia (Sr., Gilbert, Minn./Eveleth-Gilbert HS), for the remainder of the game (23:12), and he faced little challenge, as Augsburg scored five straight goals to turn the close game into another rout. Samargia stopped all six shots he faced, as Northland was outshot by Augsburg by a 43-30 margin.

Nelson had a goal in each period for the Auggies, while Pontrelli scored both his goals in the third period, including the eventual game-winner at the 8:14 mark of the final stanza.

Brad Bjorgum (Jr., Apple Valley, Minn./Eastview HS), Brad Keogh (Sr., Lake Shore, Minn./Mankato West HS), David May (So., Burnsville, Minn.) and Jaro Cesky (Sr., Prague, Czech Republic) also scored for the Auggies, who closed the regular season winning eight of their last 10 games.

May added three assists for a four-point day, while Cesky added two assists for a three-point day. Steve Belde (So., Lake Elmo, Minn./Hill-Murray HS) had two assists, as did Tarik Yumusaklar (Fr., Lakeville, Minn.).

Ryan Potts had a goal and two assists for Northland, while Ryan Becker and Jeff Affleck had a goal and assist each. Zach Hargis and Aaron Wallace had two assists each.

Augsburg converted three power-play goals in five opportunities, while Northland was held scoreless in six power-play opportunities.

Augsburg now has a 13-day rest before opening the postseason at the MIAC playoffs on Friday, Feb. 28 at the Bloomington Ice Garden. The five-team conference tournament will open on Thursday, Feb. 27 at 7 p.m., when No. 4 Gustavus will face No. 5 Concordia-Moorhead. The winner of Thursday's game will face conference regular-season champion St. John's on Friday at 5 p.m. Augsburg, the No. 3 finisher in the conference, will take on No. 2 St. Thomas in the second game of the night, at 8 p.m. The semifinal winners will meet on Saturday, March 1 at 7 p.m., with the winner receiving an automatic bid to the NCAA Division III national tournament.