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Junior Joe Harguindeguy scored the game-winning goal in the Cobbers' must-win 4-2 victory at St. John's.
Junior Joe Harguindeguy scored the game-winning goal in the Cobbers' must-win 4-2 victory at St. John's.
February 20, 2025

You Can't Kill The Cobbers' Playoff Hopes

Like Jason Voorhees in the Friday the 13th movie series, the Cobbers' playoff hopes can’t be killed off. Less than a week after dropping five of six conference points at Bethel, Concordia came back to life for another time this season and used a 3-goal second period to beat St. John’s 4-2 in the first game of the crucial 2-game series to end the regular season.

Video Box Score
ST. CLOUD, Minn. (2/20/25)---Check the calendar to see if it's Friday the 13th. 
 
Like Jason Voorhees in the Friday the 13th movie series, the Cobbers' playoff hopes can't be killed off. Less than a week after dropping five of six conference points at Bethel, Concordia came back to life for another time this season and used a 3-goal second period to beat St. John's 4-2 in the first game of the crucial 2-game series to end the regular season.
 
The resurrected Cobbers earn three points in the MIAC standings and vault all the way from a tie for sixth place – one spot out of the playoff scene – to a tie for third place with one game left in the season.      
 
Concordia can still finish anywhere from third to sixth place depending on the outcome of its game with the Johnnies on Saturday afternoon and the other contests around the league on the weekend. 
 
St. John's is now tied with the Cobbers in the 4-team logjam for third place. The Johnnies remain at 23 conference points and are 7-7-1 in the MIAC and 10-13-1 overall.
 
The game on Thursday was decided in the second period. After skating through a scoreless first period, CC and SJU combined for four goals in the middle 20 minutes of play. The good news for Concordia was that they were able to net three of those four tallies. 
 
Senior defenseman Hunter Bjorge started the 4-goal spree when he sniped home a shot from the right faceoff circle after taking a pass from Mason Plante who skated the puck into the zone and around the back of the net to set up the goal. Bjorge's strike at 1:51 was his second of the season.
 
St. John's evened the score at 1-1 with a goal in the fourth minute of play and then the Cobbers scored three straight in a span of 8:27.
 
Ben Luedtke reclaimed the lead for CC. He made a great individual effort to strip the SJU goalie of the puck in the left faceoff circle, made a hard cut to the net to beat a Johnnie back checker and then slid a backhand into the open net. The go-ahead goal at 6:17 was Luedtke's fourth of the year.
 
The eventual game-winning goal came 90 seconds after Luedtke's heads-up play. Junior Joe Harguindeguy finished off his own rebound after Hanson O'Leary stole the puck at the St. John's blueline and gave to puck to Plante who found Harguindeguy at the top of the right faceoff circle.
 
Harguindeguy's goal came at 7:47 and was his sixth of the season. 
 
The Cobbers took a 3-1 lead into the second intermission and then added a big insurance goal in the 15th minute of the final frame. Troy Dahlheimer netted his third goal of the year to puch the margin to three goals at 4-1. Bjorge and Adam Brown earned the assists on Dahlheimer's wicked snap shot from between the faceoff circles. 
 
St. John's got to within two goals when the netted a shorthanded goal at 15:31, but then the CC defense shut the door and only allowed three shots on goal in the final four minutes of play which included 2:30 of an extra skater for SJU after they pulled their goalie at the 17:30 mark.
 
Concordia held a 40-36 edge in shots on goal for the game. The 40 shots for CC are the most since Jan. 17 when they dropped 46 on St. Scholastica. 

Sophomore netminder Dane Couture made 34 saves in the contest and is now 11-7-3 on the year. The 11 overall wins are the most by a CC goalie since the 2022 campaign when Jackson Nelson went 11-6-3. 
 
Neither team scored on the power play. The Cobbers were 0-for-3 and held the Johnnies scoreless in their four attempts. 
 
The two teams will try to make the playoffs when they square off in a "playoff game before the playoffs" on Saturday, Feb. 22 at 4:30 p.m. at the Moorhead Sports Center.