Five Unanswered Goals Leads To Series-Opening Win

MOORHEAD, Minn. (12/15/12)—Concordia scored five unanswered goals and went on to cruise past Northland 5-1 in Moorhead on Saturday. The Cobbers, who were coming off a two-week break for finals, had five different players score as they won for the second straight game.

The Lumberjacks (2-8-1) scored on their very first shot of the game but then Concordia went on to score once in the each of the first and second periods before exploding for three goals in the final frame. The victory pushes the Cobbers' overall record within one game of the .500 level. CC is now 5-6-1 in their first 12 games of the 2012-13 season.

"We came out like a team that had just taken finals," commented Concordia head coach Chris Howe. "It took us a little while to get going but once we got into the game the guy's legs started going and we got up to the speed of playing a game."

It took almost the entire first period before Concordia could come up with the game-tying goal. Dan Hrabowych's fourth goal of the season at 17:29 came on the power play and allowed CC to head into the first intermission deadlocked at 1-1.

Chris Williamson posted the only goal of the second period when he took a breakout pass from Andrew Deters, raced down the right wing and snapped off a shot that went "bar down" from just atop the face-off circle. Williamson's goal at the 3:07 mark was his second of the season and it would be the first of two points on the night for Deters.

The Cobbers got into their offensive flow in the third period. CC outshot Northland 17-4 in the final frame and put up three goals in the first 11 minutes of play. "We asked them to play harder," responded Howe about what adjustments he made heading into the third period. "There is a level of intensity you have to play with and they were able to respond."

Three different Cobber players scored in the period. Defensemen Rylan Henley jumped into the attack and scored his first goal of the year just 1:52 into the period. That goal tipped the flow of the game in Concordia's favor. Ben Payne scored a goal for a face-off at 6:11 and then Deters jammed home the final goal of the game at 10:10. Four different players were responsible for setting up the third-period goals. Jordie Bancroft added to his team-leading point total by picking up his fifth assist of the year. Brian Kang, Chris Beede and Dave Velich also added helpers on the final two scores.

The Cobber special teams had a successful night. The Concordia penalty kill unit held the Lumberjacks scoreless in their five power play attempts while the CC power play squad was 1-for-5 on the man-advantage situations.        

Concordia held a significant shots on goal edge in the first and third periods and wound up outshooting Northland 38-17 in the game. CC had a 30-8 advantage in the bookend periods while the Lumberjacks came away with a 9-8 margin in period No.2.

Cobber goalie Chris Neamonitis stopped the final 16 shots he faced and picked up his fifth win of the year. He is now 5-4-0 in nine games. MCHA Freshman of the Week Mason Riley made 33 saves between the pipes for the Lumberjacks and was saddled with his fifth loss of the season.

Concordia will go for its first sweep of the season on Sunday, Dec. 16 at 2 p.m. when the teams meet in the series finale.  "We're going to go as hard as we can for 20 minutes," said Howe. Hopefully we will have enough gas for a full 60 minutes."