Box Score  | GameDay Preview

MOORHEAD, Minn. — The Saint Mary's University men's hockey team entered Friday's Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference game against Concordia coming off a season-high five-goal performance in a 5-4 win over Augsburg last Saturday night.

Concordia, meanwhile, entered Friday's matchup having played nine overtime games — including going into OT in five of its last six games and eight of its last 11.

So it really came as no surprise that the Cardinals' offense continued clicking on all cylinders, scoring four goals — including three in a span of 1:30 early in the third period.

And, of course, the Cobbers would send the game into overtime.

Unfortunately, OT was not kind to the Cardinals, as Concordia — which sent the game into overtime by scoring the game-tying goal with two seconds remaining in the third period — got a goal from Joe Becker 2:36 into the extra session to beat SMU 5-4 at the Moorhead Sports Center.

"That's a tough one to lose," said SMU coach Bill Moore. "The guys did such a great job to battle back from that 3-1 deficit, and then to give up (the game-tying goal) with two seconds left, that just devastates you.

"We certainly played well enough to win tonight — it's tough."

Concordia scored the only goal of the opening period, as Charlie Aus beat SMU goalie Phil Heinle (York, Pa.) on the power play at 9:23 to give the Cobbers a 1-0 lead after the first 20 minutes of play.

The Cobbers' Jordie Bancroft and Caleb Suderman netted back-to-back goals 1:10 apart five minutes into the second period to push the CC lead to 3-0. Martin Gruse (Trenton, Mich.) finally broke through for the Cardinals, scoring his fifth goal of the season at 12:21 to get SMU back within two, 3-1.

After scoring just the one goal in the game's first 20 minutes, the Cardinals needed just 1:32 to turn that 3-1 deficit into a 4-3 lead — as Bobby Thompson (Centerville, Minn.), Nick Nagel (Andover, Minn.) and Jonathon Elliott (Bloomfield Hills, Mich.) scored back-to-back-to-back to grab the one-goal lead five minutes into the third period.

The Cardinals maintained that one-goal advantage until the game's final seconds, when Aus scored his second of the game with two seconds remaining to send the game into overtime. And the Cobbers needed just two of the five minutes of the extra session, as Becker beat Heinle with the game-winner at 2:36.

Heinle finished with 31 saves in goal for the Cardinals, while Kelly Andrew had 24 saves in goal for the Cobbers.

The Cardinals (3-11-1 MIAC, 7-15-1 overall) get another shot at the Cobbers on Saturday, as the two teams square off in the second game of their two-game MIAC series at the Moorhead Sports Center. Game time is set for 2 p.m.