Series Split At St. Olaf

NORTHFIELD, Minn. (12/02/17)---A pair of goals less than four minutes apart at the back end of the second period proved to be the difference in Concordia's 3-1 loss at St. Olaf in the series finale.

The teams traded goals in the third period as the Cobbers and Oles each gained a win in the two-game series.

The split is the second straight to start the MIAC slate for the Cobbers who are now 4-3-2 in all games and 2-2-0 in conference play. St. Olaf gets to the .500 mark in both records. The Oles are now 5-5 overall and 3-3-0 in the MIAC.

Concordia outshot St. Olaf 11-6 in the first period but came out of the first 20 minutes deadlocked at 0-0. The Oles then went on the offensive and put up 18 shots in the second period. They grabbed a two-lead in the final seven minutes of the frame with even strength goals at 13:55 and 17:49.

The Cobbers got to within one goal in the first three minutes of the final period and then watched the Oles go into a defensive shell to protect the one-goal lead. St. Olaf only had three shots on goal as they concentrated on their own end of the ice.

Jake Stilwell scored his second goal in as many games when he netted an even-strength tally at 2:29 of the third. Stilwell went scoreless in his first four games of the year but then tallied a single marker in each game at St. Olaf.

Shane Gingera and Quinn Fuchs collected the assists on the goal. The same pair also assisted on Stilwell's goal on Friday night.

Concordia would go through a power play and put up four shots on goal in the next 14 minutes of play before the Oles added the insurance marker at 16:36. The Cobbers also were unable to come up with an offensive surge in the final three minutes of play as they had to kill off a penalty in the final 1:14 of the game.

The Cobbers outshot the Oles 29-27 for the game. Joe Burgmeier led all players with five shots on goal.

Jacob Stephan got the start in goal for CC for the second gamer in the series. He stopped 24 of the 27 shots he faced.

POWER PLAY POSTINGS: Concordia went 0-for-1 on the power play on Saturday and only had two power play situations for the entire weekend. The Cobbers haven't scored on the power play in three straight games and in six of the last seven games. CC is 1-for-12 during that stretch. Concordia is 3-for-21 (14.2%) on the power play this season. Last year they had a 21.7% success rate on man-advantage situations.         

WHAT'S NEXT: Concordia will finish off the conference portion of the 2017 schedule when they travel to St. Paul to take on Hamline on Dec. 8-9. The Pipers are 3-5-0 overall and 1-2-0 in the MIAC this season. They haven't played since before the Thanksgiving break and have lost three straight.