Rally Hats Help Cobbers Stay In Playoff Chase

MOORHEAD, Minn. (2/08/13)—Concordia erased a two-goal deficit and rallied to beat Hamline 5-3 on Friday to remain in the thick of the MIAC playoff chase. The Cobbers score four of the last five goals to gain their second straight win.

Concordia is now 7-6-0 in the MIAC this year and moves into a tie for fourth place in the league standings with three games left in the regular season. The top five teams in the conference make the postseason tournament. CC is now 10-11-1 overall.

The Cobbers found themselves down 2-0 just 7:59 into the first period when Hamline scored a pair of power play goals. Both scores came on the very first shot of the man-advantage situation. The teams would head into the first intermission with the Pipers still leading 2-0.

Concordia's comeback started at 7:57 of the second period when Tucker Coborn chipped the puck over the HU goalie. Caleb Suderman would follow with a goal less than five minutes later and the game would be tied 2-2.

The score would stay deadlocked at 2-2 heading into the third period. The teams traded goals just 2:06 apart with first Ben Payne of Concordia scoring to put CC up 3-2 and then Kevin Novakovich scoring from close in to tie the game at 3-3.

Concordia would get the game winner from the stick of Andrew Deters when the scored at 11:44 of the final frame. Deters' eight goal of the year was assisted by Rylan Henley and Brian Kang.

Jordie Bancroft would add to his team-leading goal total in the final seconds of play when he came up with a wrap-around goal into the empty net after the Pipers had pulled their goalie in the final minute of play. It was Bancroft's 10^th goal of the season and he becomes the first CC player to reach the 20-point plateau this year.

Concordia outshot the Pipers in all three periods and held a 33-26 advantage for the game. Cobber goalie Chris Neamonitis struggled early but then settled down to stop 18 of the final 19 shots he faced. He finished the game with 23 saves and is now 10-8-0 on the season. Piper netminder Matt Hemingway turned aside 28 shots on the night.

The two teams will finish off their two-game series on Saturday, Feb. 9 at 2 p.m. at the Moorhead Youth Rink.