MOORHEAD, Minn. - Gustavus men's hockey earned a MIAC sweep over Concordia on Saturday afternoon with a 4-3 victory. The Gusties are now on a three-game winning streak, improving to 3-3 overall and 3-1 in the MIAC.
The Gusties got the scoring started 5:55 into the first period.
Jack Suchy fed a pass off the right boards to
Jack Wineman in the right circle, who set up
Hunter Newhouse with a one-timer shot for the goal. With less than four minutes to go in the first,
Jack Anderson won a puck battle up against the boards in the Gusties zone, made a long cross-ice pass to
Christian Miller in the neutral zone, who walked into the zone and found
Joey Gimberlin open on the right side for the goal. The Gusties led 2-0 at the first intermission.
Nearly seven minutes into the second period, the Gustie defense fended off a couple scoring opportunities by the Cobbers and took the puck the other way for a breakaway goal. Suchy raced up the left boards and fed Anderson directly in front of the net for the score. The Cobbers ended the shutout at the 10:09 mark of the second and the score remained 3-1 Gusties after 40 minutes with shots even at 21-21.
Concordia quickly made it a one-goal game just 23 seconds into the third period with a goal and then netted the equalizer with an extra attacker with 1:12 left in regulation. The game appeared destined for overtime, but Newhouse had other ideas. After winning a center ice faceoff, Newhouse flipped the puck off the end boards, Wineman collected the puck and played it back to Newhouse who scored on a sharp-angle shot from the left side.
The Cobbers out-shot the Gusties 34-29 as
Marko Belak made 31 saves. Neither team scored a power play goal as the Gusties went 0-for-2 and the Cobbers 0-for-3.
"We learned a lot about ourselves as a group today," said Head Coach
Tyler Walsh. "We knew it wouldn't be easy against a good Concordia team on the road, on a long trip, and with the quick turnaround. More often than not when the home team ties it with a minute left, the game goes to overtime. No quit in the group. It starts with our leaders and goes all the way down the lineup. We'll watch the video, keep growing ourselves, and prepare for another long trip up to Northland on Tuesday."
Gustavus travels to Ashland, Wis. on Tuesday night for a non-conference game at Northland before taking next weekend off for Thanksgiving break.
