The final comeback didn’t come.

Adrian College overcame one-goal deficits on three separate occasions Saturday night in the NCAA D-III Hockey National Championship, but the fourth goal the Bulldogs spent the final period looking for never materialized.

The final score at Ridder Arena may have read 4-3 in favor of St. Norbert College, but it’s hard to say the Bulldogs were losers, and most of the 1,741 in attendance would probably agree.

Kyle Watson tied the game at 2-2 and Eric Miller’s goal (pictured below) made it 3-3 late in the second period, but Nick Tabisz’s power-play goal just 59 seconds later held up as the game-winner.

“I thought their power play was the difference, our inability to stay out of the box,” Adrian College head coach Ron Fogarty said. “Five on five, I believe it was 3-1. They won the special teams. I said it the last four years, if you win the special teams, you have a great shot of winning the game. And they beat us in that facet of the game today.”

NOTE: Link to video of entire postgame press conference HERE.

In just their fourth year of existence, Adrian triumphed as the underdog through the NCAA Tournament in setting up a date for the title with the No. 1-ranked Green Knights, a team making its fifth title game appearance in the past eight seasons.

“I am extremely happy to have the opportunity to play in a championship game,” Fogarty said. “It just wasn’t our day, but hopefully someday we can get back here. It’s a very difficult road, a very enjoyable road. We just didn’t get the job done today.”

The fortunate bounces that seemed to go the Bulldogs way Friday night went the other way Saturday.

St. Norbert was the first team to find the back of the net and it happened less than five minutes into the championship tilt. AC’s Brad Fogal made the initial stop of a long-range shot from Cody Keefer, but the puck skipped up and over Fogal’s head, landing a few feet short of the net before slowly, and painfully, trickling across the line.

But the Bulldogs didn’t appear rattled. About midway through the period, Sam Kuzyk lit the lamp to make it a new game at 1-1 at the 10:49 mark.

The theme for the rest of the game was the power play. St. Norbert made it 2-1 just a few minutes later when Johan Ryd took a nice bounce off the boards on the opposite side of the net and struck for the first extra-man advantage.

The Bulldogs outscored the Green Knights, 3-1, on the night at even strength. However, a 3-for-5 showing for St. Norbert was the difference, as Adrian went just 0-for-2 in its own power-play situations.

For the game, the Green Knights outshot the Bulldogs, 34-21, with Fogal recording 30 saves. B.J. O’Brien stopped 18 shots for St. Norbert, which won their second National Championship in program history.

Adrian’s Shawn Skelly and Jeremy Klaver were named to the all-tournament team, along with SNC’s O’Brien – who was named Most Outstanding Player – Nick Tabisz and Cody Keefer. Oswego State’s Andrew Mather rounded out the squad.

Both teams concluded the 2010-11 campaign at 25-4-1 overall.