Five Straight At The Start Finishes Off Series Sweep
Concordia scored the first five goals against St. Mary’s on Saturday, had six different players find the back of the net and beat the Cardinals 6-3 to earn the sweep in the first conference series of the year.
MOORHEAD, Minn. (11/13/21)---Concordia scored the first five goals against St. Mary's on Saturday, had six different players find the back of the net and beat the Cardinals 6-3 to earn the sweep in the first conference series of the year.
The Cobbers bolted to a 5-0 lead in the first 35:42 of play and coasted to the 3-goal win. The victory pushes Concordia over the .500 mark for the season. CC is now 3-2-1 in all games. St. Mary's loses for the third straight game is now 1-6-0.
Concordia controlled the offensive zone time in the first period, but it looked as if CC would only take 1-0 lead into the first break. Tanner Breidenbach's second goal of the series gave Concordia a 1-0 lead at the 3:09 mark of the opening frame. At that point, it looked like Concordia would pile up multiple goals in the first 20 minutes of the series finale.
The Cobbers' goal-scoring touch went cold until the final 1:36 of the period. CC seized control of the game during that stretch when they scored two goals in a span of 1:10.
Hanson O'Leary scored his first collegiate goal at the 18:24 mark and the senior defenseman Alex Stoley showed off his puck handling skills when he raced through the SMU zone, went behind the net and scored on an extended wraparound. The goal at 19:34 was his first of the year.
Concordia would score the only two goals of the second period to push the lead to 5-0 heading into the second intermission. Kevin Ness tallied the eventual game-winning goal at the 11:40 mark and then Jaret Lalli tapped home a feed from Ness at 15:42 to complete the 5-goal start.
St. Mary's scored the next two goals in the first 7-minutes of the final frame, but a shorthanded special from Brock Montgomery put the Cobbers back into cruise control for the remainder of the game.
The Cobbers were outshot 32-30 in the game. While the Cardinals had the edge in quantity, CC held the edge in quality as most of the Cobbers shots came from in close.
Keaton Leininger had a team-high four shots for the Cobbers.
Jackson Nelson continued his unbeaten streak to start the season. He turned aside 29 shots and is now 3-0-1 on the season.
UP NEXT: Concordia will complete its 7-game homestand to start the year when they host Hamline in a non-conference game on Tuesday, Nov. 16 at 7 p.m. at the Moorhead Sports Center.