Second And Third Periods Turn Into Stephen King Special

ST. PETER, Minn. (2/09/14)---Things were looking up for Concordia 25 minutes into their game at Gustavus. The Cobbers had just taken a 2-1 lead in the series opener as they continued their push for another conference playoff berth.

Unfortunately for the Cobbers, the final 35 minutes would turn into a scene from a Stephen King movie. Concordia gave up six unanswered goals in the last two periods and fell 7-2 to the Gusties.

The loss drops the Cobbers into seventh place in the league standings in the race for five postseason spots. CC is 5-6-2 in the MIAC and has 17 league points. The good news is that Concordia is only three points shy of fifth place as the season winds down to the final three regular-season contests.

Concordia (10-9-3) opened the scoring midway through the first period after a flurry of several point-blank shots were stopped. The puck eventually came back to the point where Brady O'Brien fired a shot towards the goal. Junior Mason Plante was parked in front of the goal and tipped O'Brien's shot past the Gustie goalie.

The strike at 9:25 was Plante's ninth of the year and added to his team-leading point total. Plante has nine goals and 12 assists for 21 points in 2024.

The game would stay at 1-0 into the first break. CC held an 11-4 shots on goal advantage and appeared to have all the momentum.

Gustavus (9-11-2, 4-8-1 MIAC) came out of the break and found life as they scored in the second minute of play to tie the game at 1-1.

It appeared that fellow junior Cole Lehman restored the Cobber order when he put CC back in front with a strike at the 3:54 mark of the middle frame.

Hanson O'Leary won the draw in the left faceoff circle and the puck went off the boards and directly to defenseman Cole Lehmann. Lehmann let loose with a 1-timer that eluded the players in front and whistled past the Gustavus netminder, who never saw the puck until it was in the net.

The go-ahead goal was Lehmann's second of the season with O'Leary earning his seventh helper of the year.

The game took a complete 180-degree turn after the Cobbers were whistled for an interference penalty only 1:09 after Lehmann's tally.

It took the Gusties 40 seconds to tie the game and they would score the eventual game-winning goal at 8:11. Both of the goals came on the power play.

The game stayed at 3-2 until the third period when Gustavus scored four goals on 11 shots.

The Cobbers outshot Gustavus 26-21 for the game. Lehmann had a team-high four shots on goal.
Matt Fitzgerald stopped 14 shots in goal for CC.   

Concordia was 0-for-5 on the power play, while the Gusties were 2-for-6. The Cobbers are now 0-for-13 on the power play in their last three games.     
      
UP NEXT: The Cobbers will look to gain a crucial three points when the teams finish off the series on Saturday, Feb. 10 at 2 p.m. at the Don Roberts Ice Arena.