A February Frenzy Finish Ends Cobbers' Season In MIAC Quarterfinals.
March Madness gave way to February Frenzy on Saturday in the quarterfinals of the MIAC tournament. On a day where all six of the top ranked teams in DI basketball lost, No.2 seed Concordia was upset by No.7 seed St. Olaf in the final 61-seconds of the third period.
MOORHEAD, Minn. (02/26/22)---March Madness gave way to February Frenzy on Saturday in the quarterfinals of the MIAC tournament. On a day where all six of the top ranked teams in DI basketball lost, No.2 seed Concordia was upset by No.7 seed St. Olaf in the final 61-seconds of the third period.
The Cobbers were either led, or were tied, for almost 40-minutes – until the Oles scored the game winner with 1:01 left on the clock and made it stand up for a 3-2 playoff victory.
The loss is the third in the final six game for the Cobbers who end the season with a 13-10-3 overall record.
The defeat overshadows the historic milestone reached by senior Tyler Bossert who recorded an assist on Concordia's first goal of the game to give him 100 career points. He became the first CC player to reach that milestone since Greg Salvevold in 1998.
Like the series during the regular season between the two teams, neither team could take a 2-goal advantage and pull away.
St. Olaf (9-14-3) opened the scoring with an even-strength goal at 9:37 of the first period.
The Cobbers would tie the game in the last minute of the opening frame, when Kevin Ness knocked home a rebound while he was sitting on the ice. Bossert got control of the puck behind the net and skated around the left side of the goal. He then fired a shot from the bottom of the left faceoff circle which was stopped by the St. Olaf goalie. Ness was knocked to the ice by an Ole defenseman and he proceeded to take two swings at the puck before burying the rebound.
The goal at 19:32 of the first frame was Ness' eighth of the season and earned Bossert his MIAC-leading 23rd helper of the year.
The teams would also trade goals in the second period. Concordia got their first lead of the game when senior Keaton Leininger fired a laser from the right faceoff circle that found the top righthand corner of the net.
Parker Simonson won control of the puck on the right sideboards and left it for Leininger who was skating away from the Ole goal. He then wheeled around and let go a snipe from the top of the faceoff circle that found an opening of about six inches.
The go-ahead goal at 4:28 was Leininger's second of the season.
St. Olaf returned the late-period, game-tying goal theme when they struck for their second goal with 1:36 left in the middle frame.
Perhaps the deciding point of the game came in the first four minutes of the third period. Concordia was staked to almost four full minutes of power play time but couldn't come up with the go-ahead goal.
The game would remain tied at 2-2 until the final 70-seconds of play when the Oles converted a turnover in the Cobber end to the game-winning goal.
Concordia outshot St. Olaf 31-22 for the game with Isaac Henkemeyer-Howe lead CC with five shots on frame.
Jackson Nelson stopped 19 shots in goal for the Cobbers.
Neither team scored on the power play. Concordia was 0-for-4, while the Oles went 0-for-2.