With the same score as the night before, St. John’s defeated Concordia, 5-2, on Saturday
night and won their MIAC semifinal series. Four of the game’s six goals were scored on power plays.
Concordia started the game by sustaining pressure in the St. John’s defensive zone, but wasn’t able to put the puck past St. John’s goaltender Rick Gregory. The Cobbers finally grabbed a lead for the first time in the series when Jon Tranby scored on the power play at 11:52 of the first period.
St. John’s countered less than three minutes later when Corey Huck snapped a shot from the left faceoff circle that beat Concordia goalie Bryan Howard high on the glove side. St. John’s then went on top with under two minutes to play in the period on Chad Helmer’s power play goal at 18:01.
Concordia tied the game again early in the second period when Jason DiMatteo beat Gregory on the power play after being set up by Mike Gast and Brady Burgess. It was DiMatteo’s fourth goal in the last four games.
Once again the Johnnies countered less than three minutes later. With Concordia’s Jeremy Law in the penalty box for hooking, John Konrad settled the puck after a rebound, skated left to avoid traffic and flipped the puck into the top of the net before Howard could scramble across the goalmouth. The Cobbers scored four goals in the series and gave up a goal less than
three minutes later after each one.
In the third period Concordia continued to press the attack but were unable to find a way to score the game-tying goal. The best chance for the Cobbers (14-11-12) came when Tony Castaneda broke free from the blueline on the left wing, but couldn’t slide the puck through Gregory’s pads.
St. John’s (15-10-2) had 33 shots on net in the game, compared to 28 for Concordia. Johnnie goalie Rick Gregory stopped 64 of the 68 shots he faced in the series.
Bryan Howard blocked 51 shots of the 57 shots he faced in the Cobber net.
