5 Straight Leaves No Doubt In Series Split

ST. PAUL, Minn. (1/16/16)--- Concordia scored the first five goals of the game and made sure there would be no late-period Hamline heroics as they rolled to a 7-3 win over the Pipers.

The win helps the Cobbers gain a split in the series and move to 5-1-0 on conference play. CC returns to the .500 mark in all games and are now 7-7-1 for the year. All five MIAC wins have come in regulation which gives CC 15 points in the league standings. The Cobbers are now tied for second place – just three points behind St. Thomas who has two games in hand over CC.

A four-goal second period proved to be the back breaker in the game. Mario Bianchi and Jordie Bancroft staked Concordia to a 2-0 lead after one period. Bianchi scored an even-strength goal at 10:45 and then Bancroft scored on the power play just 1:59 later. Bancroft assisted on the opener by Bianchi and then the blue line tandem of Charlie Aus and Jake Zeleznikar earned the helpers on the special teams strike.

Bancroft's goal ended a long power play drought for Concordia. CC had been held without a power play goal for 11 straight games and 43 consecutive man-advantage attempts.

The Cobbers stretched their lead to five goals with three tallies in the first 13:04 of the middle period.

Jon Grebosky started the goal spree by netting a shorthanded goal at 1:56. It would be the first of his two shorty scores for the day.

Zach Doerring continued his recent scoring streak by putting CC up 4-0 at 7:32. Grebosky and Zeleznikar picked up their second point in the game.

Garrett Hendrickson pushed the lead to 5-0 at 13:04 when he scored his third goal of the year. Bancroft and Tucker Coborn had the assists on the fifth goal of the game.

Hamline (5-8-4/2-5-1 MIAC) finally got on the board with 6:26 left in the period but then Grebosky's second shorthanded goal reclaimed a five-goal advantage for the Cobbers.

The Pipers scored twice in the first nine minutes of the final period but the second-period scoring spree proved to be too much. Concordia tacked on the extra point when freshman Jake Stilwell scored his fourth goal of the year at 13:40.

Concordia was outshot 44-34 in the game with Hamline having a 13-12 edge in each of the first and second periods. Bianchi had a team-high six shots on goal and now leads the team in shots with 50 for the season.

Sophomore goalie Alex Reichle made 41 saves in the game to pick up his seventh win of the year.

THE BIG GREBOSKY
Jon Grebosky added two goals and an assist to his team-leading point total. Grebosky now has eight goals and 10 assists for 18 points on the season. He has put up at least two points in four of the past five games and had five points in the series vs. Hamline. Grebosky has jumped all the way to a tie for sixth in the MIAC in total points. With his two shorthanded goals he now leads the conference in "shorties".

THE YEAR OF THE DOERRING
Zach Doerring loves 2016. After not scoring a single goal in the first 11 games of the year which included every game in 2015, Doerring has now scored a goal in three of the four games in 2016.      

WHAT'S NEXT
Concordia will finally put an end to its seven-game, 48-day road trip when they host Augsburg for a two-game series on Friday, Jan. 22 and Saturday, Jan. 23. The Cobbers are currently tied for second place in the MIAC with identical 5-1-0 league records.