DE PERE, Wis. — The Concordia University Wisconsin men's ice hockey team dropped a 5–2 decision to St. Norbert in Game 1 of the NCHA Harris Cup Quarterfinals on Friday night at Cornerstone Community Center. The Falcons, the tournament's sixth seed, trail the second-seeded Green Knights in the best-of-two series.
 
St. Norbert opened the scoring at 8:44 of the first period, but Concordia Wisconsin answered less than a minute later to even the game. Freshman Pier-Olivier Allard (Quebec, Que.) forced a turnover in the defensive zone and started a transition sequence through freshman Cooper Brown (Airdrie, Alta.) to classmate Matt Green (Barrie, Ont.). Green carried the puck coast-to-coast and beat the Green Knights' goaltender one-on-one to make it 1–1.
 
The Green Knights responded with back-to-back goals spanning the end of the first and early second periods to build a 3–1 lead. CUW cut the deficit to one at 9:07 of the second when junior Riley Klugerman (Aurora, Ont.) and sophomore Evan Forrest (Spruce Grove, Alta.) combined to set up junior Matt Koepke (Vernon Hills, Ill.), who deked the goaltender and finished to make it 3–2.
 
St. Norbert added two third-period goals while holding the Falcons scoreless to secure the series opener.
 
Sophomore Connor Van Weelie (Mississauga, Ont.) and Green paced CUW with three shots apiece. Van Weelie also led in the faceoff circle, winning 10 of 21 draws. Defensively, Koepke and Allard recorded three blocked shots each. Junior goaltender Blake Hazelton (Lake Orion, Mich.) made 24 saves.
 
The Falcons will look to even the series in Game 2 on Saturday. Puck drop is set for 7 p.m. at Cornerstone Community Center in De Pere, Wis.