Power Play Propels Win
A trio of power-play goals helped Concordia beat St. John’s 4-2 in the opening game of the 2-game series in St. Cloud.
ST. CLOUD, Minn. (11/23/19)---A trio of power-play goals lifted Concordia over St. John's in the first game of the 2-game series in St. Cloud.
The Cobbers pulled away from the Johnnies with two man-advantage strikes in a span of 55-seconds and then added an empty-net marker in the final seconds to record the 4-2 win and earn their first conference win of the season.
Concordia is now 3-5-0 in all games and 1-2-0 in conference play. St. John's is now even across the board. SJU is 2-2-2 overall and 1-1-1 in the MIAC.
The Johnnies struck first with a power play goal at the 8:31 mark of the opening period. The teams would go into the first intermission with St. John's holding the 1-0 lead.
The Cobbers tied the game in the final five minutes of the second frame when junior transfer Christian Cakebread scored his second goal of the season at 14:22. Like the Johnnies, Concordia's opening goal came on the power play. Aaron Herdt and Tanner Breidenbach had the assists on the goal.
The game was tied at 1-1 heading into the third period. Concordia was able to pull away with two power play goals in 55-seconds starting at the 6:05 mark. The Cobbers were staked to a 5-minute major power play starting at the 2:00-minute mark and then waited until the final minute to do the damage.
Junior All-American Tyler Bossert scored the go-ahead goal at 6:05 and then Tanner Okeson recorded the eventual game-winning goal at 7:00 just as the penalty expired. Bossert also picked up an assist on Okeson's tally while Jacen Bracko and Cakebread had the helpers on Bossert's go-ahead strike.
St. John's would get to within one goal at 13:45 but the Cobber defense was able to shut down the Johnnie attack and Joe Burgmeier put the final touch on the win with an empty-net special at 19:53. Bossert earned an assist on the final goal to record his first 3-point game of the season.
Concordia outshot St. John's 38-26 which included a decisive 19-4 edge in the game-winning third period.
Okeson and Herdt led all players with six shots each.
Senior Jacob Stephan earned his second straight start in goal for the Cobbers and stopped 24 shots to come away with his second straight win.
The Cobbers were 1-for-26 on the power play heading into the series opener with SJU and then went 3-for-7 to record the win. The Johnnies were 1-for-4 on the power play.
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UP NEXT: Concordia will look to gain the series sweep when they play St. John's on Sunday, Nov. 24 at 2 p.m. at the National Hockey Center in St. Cloud.