MENDOTA HEIGHTS, Minn. — After back-to-back victories against rival St. John’s, the St. Thomas men’s hockey team lost 5-4 in an overtime heartbreaker against Concordia-Moorhead Friday night at the St. Thomas Ice Arena.
The Tommies and the Cobbers are no strangers. They met earlier in the season in the MIAC Hockey Showcase where, thanks to an early goal and stellar play by goalie Sam Nelson, the Cobbers won 1-0.
To conclude Friday night’s battle, the Cobbers scored with 1:15 left in overtime on a game-winning power play goal by Zach Doerring.
Tommie forward Tanner Barnes took a trip to the penalty box with just over two minutes left to play in overtime, and the Cobbers took advantage.
“There were a lot of breakdowns tonight,” head coach Jeff Boeser said.
The St. Thomas men’s hockey team (10-6-4) tallied up one first-period goal Friday night, scored by Michael Dockry, to give the Tommies a 1-0 advantage early.
But Concordia (12-7-1) responded quickly when junior forward Dalton Mills skated around a Tommie defensemen on a power play to put the puck in the back of the net and match the score 1-1.
The teams went back and forth in a physical second-period going into the second intermission with a 3-3 tie.
“I don’t think that we deserved to win, to be honest with you,” Boeser stated. “We thought we could just show up and win a game, and it doesn’t work that way.”
Even after admittedly not playing their best hockey, the Tommies found themselves in a tie game after Brian LeBlanc’s third-period goal, evening the score at 4-4 with 15:43 to go in the end of regulation.
The Cobbers moved to seal the victory after scoring again on a power play in dramatic overtime fashion.
“Thank God we can get the bad taste out of our mouths in less than 24 hours,” Boeser said. “We have to come back and come ready to play tomorrow. We’ll see what kind of character we have.”
St. Thomas will seek its first win of the season against Concordia-Moorhead on Saturday Feb. 4 at the St. Thomas Ice Arena at 3 p.m.
Gamiel Hall can be reached at gamiel.hall@stthomas.edu.