Powerless Play In St. Cloud

ST. CLOUD, Minn. (1/19/14)—Concordia struggled on the power play in each of the three periods at St. John's and lost 2-1 in the second game of the series. The Cobbers went 0-for-6 on the power play, including a full two-minute 5-on-3 situation late in the third period, and lost both games against SJU.

The weekend series at St. John's were the first conference games of the New Year for the Cobbers and drops their overall record to 9-6-2. Concordia is now 3-4-2 in league play and falls to fifth place in the MIAC standings. The Johnnies have now won five straight games and move to 1-6-0 in all games and 5-3-0 against league opponents.

The power play unit and a pair of goals 7:08 apart in the first period sent Concordia to its third straight loss. The Cobbers owned the top power play unit heading into the series and were held scoreless in their eight man-advantage situations on the weekend.

St. John's scored both of its goals in the second half of the opening period. They opened the scoring with a rebound goal at 10:10 and then added the game-winning goal on a redirection from just outside the crease at 17:18.

Concordia's lone goal in the game came courtesy of captain Caleb Suderman who notched his team-leading 11^th goal of the season at the back end of the second period. Suderman's goal at the 16:11 mark was assisted by Garrett Hendrickson and Tucker Coborn. Suderman now has 11 goals and eight assists for 19 points on the season. He has scored on goal in four of the last seven games and currently leads the nation in goals and points by a defenseman. Hendrickson has now posted at least one point in four straight games and has seven overall points during that stretch. His 13 overall points leads all freshmen in the MIAC. Coborn now has at least one point in three consecutive games.

Concordia was unable to come up with the game-tying goal in the final 20 minutes of play against the Johnnies. Their best chance came with just over 5-minutes left in the period. St. John's was whistled for a pair of penalties on the same play which led to the Cobbers having a 5-on-3 power play for a full two minutes. CC held the puck in the St. John's zone the entire two minutes but could never slam the puck in the net or come up with an uncontested shot. The Cobbers had seven shots in the two-minute time frame.

The Cobbers were outshot 36-31 in the game. CC goalie Chris Neamonitis made 34 saves while SJU netminder Saxton Soley turned aside 30 of the 31 shots he faced.

Concordia will look to get back on the winning track when they host Augsburg in a two-game series on Friday and Saturday, Jan. 24-25.