ST. PETER, Minn. – The Gustavus men’s hockey team opened a two-game home series versus Concordia College Friday evening at Don Roberts Ice Rink, falling 4-2 after giving up three unanswered goals against the Cobbers.
The Gusties drop to 8-11-3 overall and 7-6 during Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference play, while Concordia improves to 9-10-3 overall and 6-6-1 within the MIAC.
Concordia countered twice after Gustie leads as a two-goal second period from the Cobbers propelled them to victory in the series opener.
Gustavus opened the scoring on the power play 9:30 into the first period. Van Sullivan (Jr., Brentwood, Minn.) won a draw back to defenseman Will LeNeave (Fy., Medina, Minn.) prior to receiving a pass back, setting up a wrist shot through traffic for his fifth of the season.
Around five minutes later, the Cobbers answered as Joe Burgmeier was left with an open shot in the shot after taking a pass from the corner and scoring past Gustie netminder Chris Amsden (Jr., St. Peter, Minn.) to knot the game at 1-1. The home team took a 13-10 shot advantage into the first intermission.
4:20 into the middle frame, Reid Brown (So., Superior, Colo.) scored the go-ahead goal, his fourth of the season off a nice pass from Tyler Rock (Fy., Savage, Minn.). However, the Cobbers quickly answered with a power play goal of their own at 5:24, and collected a loose puck late in the period for the eventual game winner.
Offense was stale in the third period as neither team was able to sustain consistent offensive zone time. Gustavus pulled Amsden with 1:42 remaining, but the Cobbers tallied an empty-net goal 40 seconds later to seal the 4-2 win.
Each team went 1-for-2 on the man advantage, while the visitors owned a 37-32 shot advantage. Amsden registered 33 saves in goal while surrendering the loss as his record falls to 6-7-1 on the season.
The Gusties will look to salvage a series split tomorrow afternoon at Don Roberts Ice Rink. Puck drop is set to 2 p.m.