Moorhead, Minn. – The Gustavus Adolphus men’s hockey team earned a 2-1 victory over Concordia College in its MIAC-opener on Friday night at the Moorhead Sports Center. With the entire evening’s scoring happening inside the opening 14 minutes of the game, Conor Deal’s (Anchorage, Alaska) game-winning power play goal at the 10:55 mark turned out to be the difference. Goaltender Erik Johnson (So., Rice, Minn.) stopped 30-of-31 shots – 30 of which came in the final two periods – en route to his first career conference win. Gustavus improves to 3-2-0 overall and 1-0-0 in the MIAC with the win, while Concordia drops to 2-3-0 overall and 0-1-0 in the MIAC with the loss.
Despite the long bus ride to the Red River Valley, Gustavus came out hot. Just 1:29 into the opening frame, sophomore defenseman Cameron Jackson (Lakeville, Minn.) scored his first goal of the season off a Tim Donohue (Fr., Bloomington, Minn.) assist to put the Gusties on top 1-0.
After Concordia’s Ben McWilliams was charged for interference at the 10:02 mark, Gustavus took advantage on the ensuing power play, scoring a power play goal for the third straight game. Fifty-three seconds into the penalty at the 10:55 mark, freshman forward Conor Deal netted his second goal of the year off dimes from Sam Majka (So., Wayzata, Minn.) and Andy Pearson (Sr., Burnsville, Minn.) to give the Black and Gold a 2-0 advantage.
The Gusties finished 1-for-1 on the power play and are now 3-for-8 on the man-advantage over their last three games.
Less than three minutes after Deal’s tally, Concordia got on the scoreboard at 13:25 with a goal by Garrett Hendrickson.
Henkrickson’s goal in the first period was all Concordia could scrap together, as Gustavus goaltender Erik Johnson turned away 30 of the Cobbers’ shot over the remaining 40 minutes. Johnson made a total of 31 saves and improves to 3-2-0 overall with the win. He has recorded more than 30 saves in his last two games. Johnson’s counterpart, Alex Reichle suffered the loss after allowing both goals and making 13 saves.
Concordia was given two power play opportunities (one in the second and one in the third) yet couldn’t capitalize. Gustavus has now killed its opponents’ last eight power plays and is mow 13-for-14 on the kill this season.
Although Gustavus outshot the Cobbers 7-to-3 in the first period, Concordia blistered the Gustie net with 30 shots over the second and third combined. Concordia controlled the final shot count by a 32-to-15 margin.
The Gustavus men’s hockey team will go for its first series sweep of the season tomorrow afternoon when it faces Concordia in the weekend-finale at 2:00 p.m.