Home For The Semifinals

NORTHFIELD, Minn. (2/22/20)---The only drama in the regular-season finale came 96 miles away from where the Cobbers were playing St. Olaf. Concordia scored the first three goals against the Oles, used a 3-goal second period and rolled past St. Olaf 4-1 to earn a sweep in the final series of the year.

The most emotional-filled part of Saturday was keeping an eye on the St. John's/St. Mary's game in Winona as the outcome of that game would determine whether the Cobbers claimed the MIAC regular-season championship. The host Cardinals needed a win or tie against the Johnnies to help CC earn the  title and it looked like that would be the case as SMU led 2-0 after the first period and then 4-3 after two periods of play. St. John's rallied with two goals to take a 5-4 lead before the Cardinals tied the game with 6-minutes left to play. Unfortunately for Concordia, the deadlock wouldn't stand and SJU earned the game winner with 3:47 remaining in regulation.

The win over St. Olaf, and subsequent victory by the Johnnies, earns Concordia the No.2 seed in the upcoming MIAC tournament where they will host No.3 seed Augsburg in the semifinals on Saturday, Feb. 29.

It looked like the final game of the series would be a replay of the opener with neither team getting on the board in the first 17 minutes of play. Concordia would take a 1-0 lead into the first break when Quinn Fuchs scored an even-strength goal at 17:09 of the first frame. Parker Simonson and Jake Ellingson had the assists on Fuchs' second goal of the season.

The Cobbers doubled up on the Oles in shots in the first period – holding a 14-7 edge.

The game changed in favor of Concordia in a span of 2:39 at the start of the second period. Senior captain Joe Burgmeier doubled the lead at the 2:06 mark and then fellow senior Eddie Eades scored his second goal of the weekend and staked CC to a huge 3-0 lead at 4:45. Jake Ellingson and Keaton Leininger had the helpers on the goal by Burgmeier and Fuchs earned his second point of the night on the strike by Eades.

St. Olaf would trim the lead to two goals with their opener at 7:47 but it was going to be an uphill task for the Oles to completely come back from the 3-goal deficit as the Cobbers had only allowed more than two goals once in the last nine games.

The Cobber defense stayed true to their late-season theme and kept St. Olaf off the board in the final 32 minutes of play.

Junior All-American Tyler Bossert had a rare left-side entry on the scoresheet as he finished off the scoring with a goal at 14:46 of the third period. Simonson added his second assist of the game and Aaron Herdt took a turn setting up his linemate instead of being on the receiving end.

Senior goalie Jacob Stephan has upped his game down the stretch and turned aside 18 shots to record his third straight win and sixth in the past seven games. He is now 9-6-1 on the year. He now has 20 wins in the last two seasons in goal for CC.

The Cobbers outshot the Oles 46-19 in the finale and 91-39 for the series. Herdt led all players with nine shots on goal and Bossert had eight.

Neither team scored on the power play in the game. Concordia was 0-for-5 while the Oles went 0-for-4 with the man advantage.

INSIDE STAT INFO: The 46 shots on goal for the Cobbers are a season high and most since they had also had 46 against Hamline in 2017. The 91 shots in the two games is the most in a series and most since they put up 107 against Bethel in the final series of the 2016 season.

INSIDE STAT INFO II: Senior Aaron Herdt led the Cobbers in shots on goal this season with 91. Herdt is second in the MIAC in shots on goal this year. He now has 155 in his 2-year career in maroon and gold.

INSIDE STAT INFO: Jacob Stephan finished the regular season with a 2.32 goals against average in all games and a 1.63 mark in league play. He leads the MIAC in GAA in conference games and also finshed the year on top in save percentage (93.8%) and win percentage (77.3%).

UP NEXT: Concordia will start the "second season" when they host Augsburg in the MIAC senifinals on Saturday, Feb. 29 at the Moorhead Sports Center. The time of the game will be announced later in the week. The two teams split the regular-season series last weekend in Moorhead but those games were played at the Moorhead Youth Rink.