VALENCIA — If Mike Guentner could find one fault with his Butler hockey team, it would be their penchant for starting games slowly.

He won't have any problems if the Tornado finishes the way they did Monday.

After being outshot 16-8 and down 1-0 through one period to Norwin, the Tornado overwhelmed the Knights, limiting the Knights to just 10 more shots while tacking on four third-period goals in a 6-2 PIHL Class AAA victory at the Ice Connection.

“I don't want to take anything away from Norwin. They came out hard,” Guentner said. “We just have a tough time coming out of the gate.”

Tim Palmer's goal, which came from a deflection off Tornado goalie Logan Rothbauer on a Marc Swankler shot, gave Norwin the 1-0 lead through one period.

Still, Rothbauer made 15 saves to keep the game close.

“I think we were falling apart a little at the beginning,” Rothbauer said.

The fast tone set early in the contest, however, only played right into Rothbauer's comfort zone.

“The earlier the shots come, the more I can stay focused and get into my game,” he noted.

Just 1:31 into the second period, Nick Whann tallied the equalizer off a pass from Jake Campbell.

“Between periods, coach motivated us to come out and execute,” Whann said. “We wanted to get better forechecking and keep them away off Logan.”

The game remained tied until late in the period when, 22 seconds into a Knights' power-play opportunity, Jonathan Fair corralled the puck and fired a shot past Norwin goalie Chad Albert to give Butler a 2-1 advantage with 44.4 seconds remaining.

“Our game plan was to wear their No. 1 line down,” Guentner said. “If we play it deep, make their defense run around.

“We tried to do our best to manage the lines. We had everyone in there in the first period to try and save some legs for a burst in the third period,” Guentner added.

That worked to perfection in the third period, when the Tornado (8-8) netted three goals in a 2:28 span to take a 5-1 lead with 6:27 to play.

Whann, Tanner Chuba and Troy Double each scored, while Tony Harpel, C.J. Campbell, Tanner Gilliland and Justin Wehrli each chipped in assists.

“I think the biggest difference with this year's team and last year's is we're blessed with scoring depth,” Guentner said.

“We have Tanner (Gilliland) and Troy handling most of the load, but on nights like this Nick and Matt (Tomasovic) and Tanner (Chuba) can score. ... It can be there anytime,” Guentner added.

Swankler added an unassisted goal for the Knights (10-10) with 3:43 to play, before Tomasovic closed out the scoring off a Whann pass with 2:06 to go.

Rothbauer finished with 24 saves, while Albert was credited with 22 stops.

“The guys did a great job of keeping their shots to the outside,” Rothbauer said.

The Tornado will return to the ice today when they host State College at 7:50 p.m. in a makeup game, before traveling to Mt. Lebanon Friday.

Norwin coach James Reith could not be reached for comment.