Second Period Let Down

MOORHEAD, Minn. (1/05/18)---Get rid of the middle 20 minutes in Concordia's game against No.6-ranked Wis.-River Falls and you would have had a very exciting college hockey contest.

Unfortunately for the Cobbers the game consists of a full three periods and that helped the Falcons post a 10-4 win on Friday. Concordia tied River Falls 1-1 in the first period and was nipped 3-2 in the third but was done in by the 6-1 second period.

Concordia's offense didn't suffer the rust of a three-week lay-off for the holiday break. The Cobbers netted four goals against the nationally-ranked Falcons which ties for the second highest total allowed by UWRF all season long.

The defense stumbled through the second period and gave up six goals on their way to conceding the most goals all year and the most since the first game of the 2005-06 season.

River Falls controlled the first period of play but only held a 1-0 lead late in the frame when junior Sage Barta skated free in front of the net and sent a one-timer just inside the right post from the bottom of the faceoff circle to tie the game at 1-1 with 4:32 remaining in the opening frame.

The game would remain deadlocked at 1-1 until the second period when the Falcons struck for five straight even-strength goals in the first 12 minutes of play.

The Cobbers would stop the bleeding at the 13:36 mark when Abbie Canton slammed home a rebound from in front of the goal on the power play.

The teams would then trade goals in the third period as the play went up and down the ice. The Falcons scored first at 6:34 and then Emily Goff countered with her fifth goal of the year at the 9:43 mark.

River Falls then scored less than two minutes later before Amanda Flemming tallied her team-leading seventh goal of the season at 12:31 to finish off the Cobber scoring for the game.

The Falcons would add the final goal of the game in the last three minutes of play to bring the final tally to 10-4.

Both teams went 1-for-2 on the power play.

River Falls outshot Concordia 45-21 in the game but that was buoyed by a 19-3 margin in the second period alone. Goff had a team-high five shots on goal while Canton followed with four on target.

The Cobbers split the goaltending duties. Brittany Boss played the first 31:12 of the game and made 23 saves while Amy Jost came on in relief and stopped 12 shots in the final 28:48 of play. Boss was credited with the loss.

WHAT'S NEXT: Concordia will look to put three full periods together when it finishes off the two-game series with River Falls on Saturday, Jan. 6 at 2 p.m. at the Moorhead Sports Center.     

CONCORDIA vs. WIS.-RIVER FALLS HIGHLIGHTS