STEVENS POINT, Wis. – Two third-period goals from Lawrence Cornellier (Machesney Park, IL/Harlem) helped the third-ranked UW-Stevens Point men's hockey team battle past Hamline and back into the national semifinals for the second year in a row with a 4-2 win on Saturday night at K.B. Willett Arena.
 
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After Hamline (14-11-4) cut a 2-0 UW-Stevens Point (22-6-1) lead to one early in the third period, Cornellier scored his 11th and 12th goals of the season to help the Pointers return to the Frozen Four. The berth is the eighth time in program history that UWSP has advanced to the national semifinals.
 
UW-Stevens Point will face Amherst in the second semifinal on Friday, March 27 at Ridder Arena in Minneapolis at 7:30 p.m.. The first semifinal will feature Adrian and Trinity (Conn.).
 
Joe Rubbelke got Hamline on the board at 4:26 of the third period, trimming what was a 2-0 UWSP lead to one. Less than four minutes later, Cornellier scored his first of the night from Kyle Sharkey (Moore, OK/Insight School of Kansas) to give the Pointers a 3-1 lead.
 
Just 15 seconds after UWSP went up 3-1, Hamline answered on a goal by Kerry McGlynn. The score remained 3-2 until hard work by Scott Henegar (Trenton, MI/Trenton) led to Cornellier's empty-net goal with 1:20 remaining. Henegar battled to get the puck out of the defensive zone and fed it ahead to Cornellier to walk into the net.
 
The Pointers had built a 2-0 lead halfway through the game. Joe Kalisz (Davison, MI/Davison) registered his team-high 17th goal of the season at 4:50 of the first period to start the scoring, with assists going to Henegar and Drew Graves (Allen Park, MI/Allen Park ).
 
Kalisz then turned provider, earning an assist on a goal by Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) Player of the Year Kevin Gibson (Grosse Pointe, MI/North) at 10:28 of the second period.
 
Brandon Jaeger (Champlin, MN/Champlin Park) earned the win in net for UWSP, making 25 saves in the game. The victory was career win number 61 for the senior netminder, tying Todd Chin for the most in program history.
 
UW-Stevens Point outshot Hamline 39-27 in the game but the Pipers got 35 saves from John Sellie-Hanson.
 
Neither team was able to capitalize on the power play in the game, as UWSP was 0-for-4 and HU was 0-for-2.

Information about tickets and a fan bus to Minneapolis for the national semifinals will be posted on athletics.uwsp.edu on Monday.