Box Score  | Photo Gallery | GameDay Preview

WINONA, Minn. — The Saint Mary's University men's hockey team put together two of their best periods of the season Saturday afternoon, and the Cardinals were well on their way to closing out the season with a victory.

Unfortunately for the Cardinals, a not-so-funny thing happened on the way to that win, as Concordia rattled off three third-period goals — all off the stick of Tucker Coborn — then netted the game-winner with less than a minute remaining in overtime to beat SMU 4-3 at the SMU Ice Arena.

“That's a tough way to end your season,” said SMU coach Bill Moore, whose team outshot the Cobbers 44-31, but came up one goal short for the second game in a row. “We played so very well in the first two periods, and then just kind of fell apart in the third — we lost our composure and (Concordia) took advantage of that.

“It's disappointing — the guys worked so hard for those first two periods, to have it end that way will sting for a bit.”

The Cardinals dominated the first two periods, and fueled by goals from Bobby Thompson (Centerville, Minn.) and Nick Gorup (Omaha, Neb.) in the first period and Austin Balko (Midland, Mich.) in the second, SMU headed into the third stanza with what appeared to be a commanding three-goal cushion.

Coborn and the Cobbers, however, had other ideas, as Coborn scored his first of three third-period goals shorthanded just 42 seconds into the period — before adding No. 2 on the power play at 5:41, then completing the natural hat trick with his second power play tally of the period at 14:43.

It was Jordie Bancroft who would get the game-winner for the Cobbers, beating SMU goalie Jason Horstman (Faribault, Minn.) with 49 seconds remaining in the five-minute extra session.

“We were hoping to send our seniors off with a win — that was our No. 1 mission today,” said Moore, whose team was officially eliminated from post-season contention with Friday's 4-3 setback to the Cobbers. “That group has done so much for this program — and we're going to miss them.”