What's Hotter Than Hot? Henkemeyer-Howe Hot

MOORHEAD, Minn. (02/13/22)---The Scoville Scale measures the heat of chili peppers. On Sunday, freshman Isaac Henkemeyer-Howe was somewhere between the Red Savina Habanero and the Ghost Pepper.

Henkemeyer-Howe almost single-handedly spotted the Cobbers a 4-goal lead in the first 26-minutes in the series finale with Bethel. He had a pair of goals and two assists as Concordia netted the opening five goals of the game in their 5-1 win over the Royals.

The rare Sunday-morning victory gave Concordia a split in the series and ends a brief 2-game losing skid. CC is now 12-9-2 overall and 9-4-1 in the MIAC.

Henkemeyer-Howe got the helpers on the first two Cobber goals which came 6:23 apart in the first 12-minutes of play.

Braden Costello opened the scoring with a power play goal at the 5:29 mark of the opening frame. He hammered home a rebound from the right side of the crease after Henkemeyer-Howe's initial shot was stopped by the Bethel goalie.

The goal was Costello's sixth of the season and first since the beginning of January.

Henkemeyer-Howe then set up Brady Tatro for the second strike of the game. He slid a pass from faceoff circle to faceoff circle that found Tatro all alone for the 1-timer. Senior Tanner Breidenbach also got an assist on the goal at 11:52.    

The tally for Tatro was his eighth of the year and second in the last four games.

The Henkemeyer-Howe show then kicked into high gear when he scored the next two goals in the game. He struck for Concordia's third goal of the opening 20 minutes of play at 5:33, and then added a second goal in the first six minutes of the second period.

Henkemeyer-Howe's first goal came courtesy of a cross-ice pass from Brock Montgomery wide open on the back side of the net. He was able to tap home the easy finish to give CC a 3-0 lead. Mason Plante got on the scoresheet for the first time in the game as he made the pass to Montgomery.

The fourth goal of the game came at the 5:33 mark of the middle period, and was also put home on the right side of the crease by Henkemeyer-Howe. He tapped home the pass from Brady Tatro to put the Cobbers up 4-0. 

The two goals give Henkemeyer-Howe nine on the season which is tied for second most on the team. He has scored five goals in the Cobbers' last six games and has a total of nine points during that stretch.

Kevin Ness finished off the 5-goal flurry for Concordia. He was set up on a silver platter by Tyler Bossert. The Cobbers broke the neutral zone on a 3-on-2 advantage. Senior Alex Stoley carried the puck into the Bethel zone and then slid a pass to Bossert who was just to his left. Bossert drew the defense into him and then dropped the puck backwards between his legs to Ness who had cut into the middle of the rink. Ness took advantage of the wide-open shot by hitting the inside of the right post and having the puck carom into the net. 

The goal was Ness' seventh of the year and second of the series.

Bossert recorded his 22nd assist of the year which leads the MIAC and is tied for eighth best in all of Division III. The assist also gives Bossert 98 career points.

Bethel (13-9-1, 6-7-1 MIAC) finished off the scoring with their only goal of the game at the 11:41 mark of the second period.

The Cobbers were able to kill of a pair of penalties in the final 22-minutes of play to pick up the split in the series.

Concordia outshot Bethel 40-32 in the game and 76-57 in the series.

Jackson Nelson rebounded from the loss on Saturday by stopping 31 shots on Sunday. He earned his 10th win of the season and is now 10-5-2 on the year.

UP NEXT: Concordia will finish off the regular season by traveling to St. Paul to take on Hamline in a 2-game series on Feb. 18-19 at 7 and 2 p.m.   

CONCORDIA vs. BETHEL HIGHLIGHTS