Bossert Nears 100-Point Mark As Career Nears Its Culmination
Article reprinted courtesy of the Forum and reporter Eric Peterson
MOORHEAD — Two seasons ago, Concordia Cobbers senior Tyler Bossert played through a shoulder injury, showing grit that impressed Dale Lund, who was then an assistant coach for the Cobbers men's hockey team.
Lund remembers Bossert having to pop his shoulder back into place throughout that 2019-2020 season in which he had 27 points in 26 games.
"He wasn't going to miss games," said Lund, now Concordia's interim head coach. "The more you're around him, the more you get to like him. He just kind of grows on him."
The 5-foot-11, 180-pound Bossert is one of the top forwards in the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, leading the league in points (31) and assists (22) in his final season with the Cobbers.
After the coronavirus pandemic limited Concordia to two games last season, the 25-year-old Bossert is thankful he's ending his college career with a more normal season. The Cobbers (12-9-2, 9-4-1 MIAC) have two games remaining in the regular season before the MIAC playoffs.
"You don't want your last hockey season ever to be a COVID-shortened season where you only play two games," said Bossert, who played high school hockey for Fargo South-Shanley. "It's been really fun and I think it's been a really good way to end it on a good note as opposed to how last year ended would have been a tough way."
The Cobbers are in third place in the MIAC in points percentage behind Augsburg and St. John's. All nine men's teams are set to compete in the conference tournament this season with a change in the postseason format due to COVID-19.
Concordia plays at Hamline on Friday and Saturday to close out the regular season.
Bossert, who started skating around 20 years ago, played two seasons of junior hockey after his high school career. He then went to NDSU where he played on the club hockey team, but that wasn't enough to satisfy his hockey hankering.
"It's not quite the same as far as skill level so it doesn't create the same kind of feeling for you," Bossert said. "I went to NDSU for one year and I thought I was done with hockey. … You think you want to be done and you want the free time and you realize that it was pretty fun the whole time and you don't have many other things to do."
Bossert followed up his one school year at NDSU with four hockey seasons at Concordia where he also plays on the men's golf team.
Lund said Bossert brings maturity to the Cobbers.
"He's our leader," Lund said. "He has poise. … When they are anxious or uptight about a big game he kind of helps keep the locker room a little bit loose, but at the same time focused."
Bossert has 98 points, including 72 assists, through 77 career games. The Fargo Shanley graduate has a plus-24 career plus-minus rating and can become the first Cobbers men's player to score 100 points in a career since the late 1990s.
"He's very quick," Lund said. "He thinks the game really well so he's always thinking a step or two ahead of everybody so things just happen a little bit quicker for him."
Bossert credits the linemates that he's played with throughout his career for his production, including former Cobbers forwards Mario Bianchi, Aaron Herdt and Beau Wilmer.
This season, Bossert is playing on a line with sophomore center Kevin Ness and sophomore forward Cole O'Connell, a Moorhead High School graduate.
"I've played with some exceptional linemates throughout the years," Bossert said.
Bossert had shoulder surgery in the spring of 2020 after his second season with the Cobbers and before his COVID-shortened third season in the program.
"Being able to actually play a real hockey season after the surgery has made it worth it," Bossert said. "A lot of it for me was the experience of being with my teammates and going on road trips, not even so much the hockey."
Bossert has mixed emotions on his competitive hockey career nearing completion.
"It's been a huge part of my life from the get-go," Bossert said. "A lot of my friends are from playing hockey. It's been the main part of my life for 10-plus years. It is pretty bittersweet that it is coming to an end. It will just be a lot different not having that aspect of things in my life."