Opening The Decade With A Tie

ASHLAND, Wis. (1/10/20)---Concordia finally returned to the ice after a 34-day break for the Christmas holiday and came away with a 2-2 overtime tie at Northland.

The Cobbers erased a 1-goal deficit in the second period, took a 2-1 lead late in the middle frame but then gave up the game-tying goal with 18-seconds remaining in the third period.

The tie is the second of the year for Concordia who is now 4-6-2 overall. The Lumberjacks, who were playing in their fourth game of the new decade, move to 4-10-1 on the year.

Neither team was able to get on the scoreboard in the first period despite putting up a combined 21 shots on goal. Northland held a slight 11-10 edge in shots on goal for the first 20 minutes of the game.

Concordia fell behind in the fifth minute of the second period when the Lumberjacks opened the scoring with an even-strength goal at the 4:52 mark.

The Cobbers would tie the game while killing off a penalty. Concordia was whistled for a tripping call at the 7:17 mark and then senior Jake Ellingson notched his fourth goal of the season on a shorthanded strike at 8:05. Quinn Fuchs and Blake Berg picked up the assists on the play.

Concordia would take their first lead of the decade in the final two minutes of the middle frame. Senior Aaron Ryback put the Cobbers up 2-1 when he tallied his third goal of the year at 18:20. Tyler Bossert and Aaron Herdt were credited with the assists on the even-strength goal. For Bossert it was his team-leading 10th helper of the year and 13th point.

The Cobbers killed off the only power play attempt in the third period as a slashing call in the final minute of the second period carried over to the first 1:04 of the final period.

It looked like Concordia would open the calendar year with a 2-1 win. Cobber goalie Cam Haugenoe turned aside 18 shots in the first 19 minutes of the third period. He stopped five shots in the final two minutes of play and kept the score at 2-1 even after the Lumberjacks pulled their goalie with 1:32 to play.

Northland forced the overtime period at 19:42 after Haugenoe had made two consecutive saves.

Both teams had chances in the 5-minute overtime period but neither was able to come away with the game winner. Ellingson, Jacen Bracko and Parker Simonson all had shots on goal in OT and Haugenoe made six saves to keep the score deadlocked at 2-2.

Northland outshot the Cobbers 52-36 for the game. Bracko had a team-high seven shots on target for Concordia.

Haugenoe finished with a career-high 50 saves in the game.

INSIDE STAT INFO: Concordia didn't have a power play chance in the 65 minutes. It marks the first time this season that the Cobbers haven't had a man-advantage situation and first since the fifth game of the 2017-18 season when they hosted Wis.-River Falls on Nov. 11. The game against River Falls also went into overtime and also ended in a tie (3-3).

UP NEXT: Concordia will finish the 2-game weekend road trip when they play at Wis.-Superior on Saturday, Jan. 11 at 7:05 p.m. The Yellowjackets are the first team in the "others receiving votes" category in the latest USCHO.com national rankings. Superior is 11-2-1 on the season and coming off a 6-2 win at home over St. John's on Friday.