Zach Doerring scored the lone goal for the Cobbers in their series opener at St. John's.
Zach Doerring scored the lone goal for the Cobbers in their series opener at St. John's.

Countdown Clips Cobbers

ST. CLOUD, Minn. (1/19/18)---Concordia gave up a countdown of goals in the three periods at St. John's and lost 9-1. The Cobbers allowed four goals in the first frame, three in the second and then two in the third as they fell for the second straight game.

Concordia was never able to chase down the Johnnies on the large sheet of ice at the National Hockey Center. The teams combined for 94 shots on goal in the game. The Cobbers conceded a season-high 60 shots on goal.

The loss drops Concordia under the .500 mark. CC is now 7-8-3 in all games and 4-4-1 in the MIAC. St. John's wins for the fourth time in the last five games and is now 12-4-2 overall and 7-2-0 in league games.

The Cobbers' lone goal in the game came in the final two minutes of the third period. Zach Doerring netted his team-leading 11th goal of the year at the 18:27 mark of the final frame. Blake Berg and Mario Bianchi recorded the assists on the final goal of the game.

Concordia finished with 34 shots on goal in the game. Defenseman Bryan Kronberger had a team-high four shots while five different players had three shots on goal for the three periods.

The Cobbers went 0-for-3 on the power play while the Johnnies converted on three of their four man-advantage situations. The three power play goals by SJU are the most allowed by CC in a single game this season.

Concordia used both goalies in the game. Sam Nelson got the start and made five saves. Jacob Stephan played the final 53:18 and stopped 46 shots.

MARIO ON TOP: Junior Mario Bianchi recorded an assist in the series opener and has now put up at least one point in eight of the past nine games for Concordia. Bianchi currently leads the MIAC in total points with seven goals and 15 assists for 22 points. His 155 helpers also leads the conference in all games.

ZACH AT THE NET: Zach Doerring is now third in the MIAC in goals scored this season. He has 11 nuggets in the team's 18 games. He is one of only three players in the conference with a double-digit goal total. Doerring has a single goal in four of the past six games.

WHAT'S NEXT: Concordia will look to rebound from the series opener when they complete the series on Saturday, Jan. 20 at 1 p.m. at the National Hockey Center in St. Cloud.