COLLEGEVILLE, Minn. – With time winding down in the second overtime and a tie on the horizon Scott Heinen (Jr., Aurora, Ill.) took a corner kick that found the head of Joe Brandel (Sr., St. Louis Park), who was able to direct it into the net for a Gustavus 3-2 win. With the win the Gusties improve to 10-2 overall and 4-1 in the MIAC while the Johnnies fall to 8-4 overall and 4-2 in the conference.
“Another massive MIAC win and three points,” said Head Coach Tudor Flintham. “They’re always kind of the same because you just have to grind them out and no win is an easy win. Our scout was good and our plan was good and it was the game that we expected it to be.”
The Gusties gained the edge early, when Cole Schwartz (So., Jakarta, Indonesia) scored his 13th goal of the year just three minutes into the contest with an assist going to Raphael Cattelin (Fy., Edina).
Cattelin then got involved in the scoring, knocking one in off a corner kick from Matt Gibbons (Jr., Minneapolis) to extend the Gustavus lead to 2-0 in the 23rd minute. The Gusties and Johnnies then played scoreless the rest of the first half with the Gustavus outshooting the home team 12-6.
Saint John’s got a goal less than two minutes into the second half to cut the Gustavus lead in half at 2-1 and scored again at the 67th minute to even things at two.
The two teams then played the last 23 minutes of regulation scoreless and the teams headed to overtime.
In the first overtime period the Gusties seemed to take control towards the end of the frame, but couldn’t muster a goal as they outshot Saint John’s 4-1.
The teams then headed to a second overtime where Gustavus held control for a majority of the time, not allowing a single Johnnie shot, before Brandel netted the game winner in the 107th minute.
Wesley Sanders (Fy., Urbandale, Iowa) got the win in net, allowing two goals while making five saves.
“Saint John’s is just a tough team to play against,” said Flintham. “We told our guys they wouldn’t quit but it took our guys until OT to really wake up and we got into another gear and generated a lot of chances and put it away.”
The Gusties are next in action Wednesday when they host Bethel for a 3:30 p.m. contest.