Double Trouble Déjà Vu

WINONA, Minn. (3/1/15)—It was déjà vu all over again for Concordia against St. Mary's. For the second time in the last three games the Cobbers never had a lead against St. Mary's and lost in overtime.

The first occurrence happened in the penultimate game of the regular season when Concordia lost 4-3 in one overtime. On Sunday the stakes were a little higher but the final score was the same as the Cobbers lost 4-3 at St. Mary's in double overtime in the semifinals of the MIAC playoffs.

The back-and-forth rally began in the fourth minute of the second period after neither team was able to score in the opening 20 minutes of play. St. Mary's got on the board at 3:53 before Jeremy Johnson's shorthanded tally tied the game at 7:29. It was Johnson's eighth goal of the season and third in as many games. Charlie Aus and Tucker Coborn had the assists on the play.

The Cardinals then retook the lead at 17:07 of the middle frame and the teams skated into the second intermission with St. Mary's clinging to a one-goal lead.

Jordie Bancroft would even the score for the second time in the game for the Cobbers. His even-strength goal assisted by Johnson came at 2:01 of the third period and tied the game at 2-2. The goal was Bancroft's 15th of the year.           

Unfortunately for Concordia the 2-2 tie would only last for 7-seconds before St. Mary's regained the lead for the third time. The Cardinals were able to win the draw and get the puck in the CC zone and come up with their third goal at the 2:08 mark.

The game would stay at 3-2 until freshman Jon Grebosky fired home the third game-tying goal for the Cobbers. Grebosky's 13th strike of the season came at 13:11 and was assisted by Andrew Deters and Adam Wiertzema. Deters earned his team-leading 18th assist and 28th point of the year.

The final six minutes of regulation and the first session of overtime was a mirror image of the game's score line with the play going back-and-forth between the two offensive zones.

Both team's goalies came up with big saves in the first 20-minute extra session.

The only penalty of the two overtime sessions came at the end of the first overtime period when the Cobbers were whistled for too many men on the ice. Concordia was able to kill off the 1:04 of the penalty in the first OT period.

CC then successfully killed off the final 56-seconds of the penalty at the start of the second overtime period but couldn't get the puck out of the zone. The puck wound up being thrown on the Cobber goal with the initial shot being stopped by Concordia goalie Jordyn Kaufer. The ensuing rebound turned into a scrum of players around the Cobber goal and one of the Cardinal players was able to poke the puck into the net for the game-winning goal at the 1:05 mark.       

The two teams were almost even on the statistic sheet. St. Mary's held a slight 43-41 edge in shots on goal and neither team scored on the power play.  

Grebosky had a team-high six shots on goal while Bancroft and Wiertzema had five shots each.

Kaufer finished the game by stopping 39 of the 43 shots he faced. He finishes the year with a team-best 2.21 goals against average and a save percentage of 91.4%.

Concordia was 0-for-2 on the power play while St. Mary's failed to score in their four man-advantage situations.