Since 1964, 33 players in the history of Gustavus Adolphus men’s hockey have reached the 100-point milestone. Another name can be added to the list tonight because with both goals in Gustavus’ 2-1 overtime win over UW-Stevens Point on Saturday night in Stevens Point, Wis., Ross Ring-Jarvi became the 34th player in Gustavus men’s hockey history to score 100 career points. Gustavus earns its first win of the season and is now 1-1-2, while UW-Stevens Point falls to 2-3-0 with the loss.
Ring-Jarvi broke the ice after over 34 minutes of scoreless hockey with an unassisted power play goal at the 14:22 mark of the second period, earning his 100th point. Then, with just :16 seconds remaining in overtime, Ring-Jarvi put an exclamation point on the night when he hit the back of the net to give Gustavus the 2-1 victory.
“I told Ross that he joins a pretty exclusive group of players tonight,” said Head Coach Brett Petersen. “To score both your 100th and 101st point in 90 games is pretty special.”
Ringo’s goal in the second period was the only power play goal of the game, despite the fact that there were a total of 19 penalties called in the contest. The Gustavus penalty kill could have earned one of the three stars tonight after blanking the Pointers on seven tries with the man advantage. Gustavus was 1-for-6 on the power play.
The Pointers were able to tie the game at 1-1 at the 1:55 mark of the third period when Luke Nesper scored the game-tying goal off Kevin Gibson and Kyle Pollitz assists.
UW-Stevens point had two power play opportunities following Nesper’s equalizer, but the Gustavus defense and goaltender John McClean were up to the challenge.
McLean earned his first victory in a Gustavus uniform tonight, improving to 1-1-0 on the year. He made a total of 36 saves, 15 of which came in the first period, in a complete game. The Gusties were outshot 37-to-24 in the contest.
“We got really good goaltending out of both guys this weekend,” commented Coach Petersen on the play of his goalies against St. Norbert and UW-Stevens Point. “Tyler Venne was great last night and John McLean was just as good tonight.”
The game-winning goal by Ring-Jarvi at the 4:44 mark of the extra session came on assists from Dane Erickson and Andrew Peterson. Both Erickson and Peterson notched their first points of the season on the play.
It is Ring-Jarvi’s first overtime game-winner of his career and the first of the game-winning variety since he scored one in Gustavus’ 3-1 victory over Concordia on Feb. 5, 2011.
The victory makes the nearly five-hour bus trip home to St. Peter go by a lot faster, as the Gusties will have a week to prepare for their MIAC-opening series against Bethel on Nov. 11-12. Gustavus will take on the Royals at 7:05 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 11 in St. Peter, and Saturday, Nov. 12 at 7:00 p.m. Blaine.
“It’s a good trip to get over with early in the year. Playing in two tough buildings was a good test for this team. Now we look forward to opening up the conference season next weekend,” said Petersen.
– The last player to hit the 100-point milestone was David Martinson `10 in the 2009-10 season. Martinson finished with 130 career points at Gustavus.