We now have two MIAC regular-season games under our belt and we are off and moving. Concordia is very similar to us in that they have great forward depth, some good young defensemen and goaltending competition. With that said, both teams played hard and the result was probably what both teams deserved. We won 5-2 on Friday night and lost 5-1 on Saturday afternoon.
On Friday night, we played a great game. I felt like the game was crisp and looked like a mid-season game with both teams playing well. We were able to outshoot Concordia in each of the three periods on Friday to a 34-24 advantage for the game. The game was still very close entering the third period at 3-2. But SJU continued to play very well in the third period and came away with the 5-2 win. There were a lot of ups-and-downs in this game, but the one game-changing play came in the third period when senior goalie Tyler Nelson came up with a huge save that looked like an empty net. We followed that big save up less than a minute later with our fourth goal scored by Matt Colford that put us ahead by two goals. That was a back-breaker for Concordia and pushed us through the end of the game for the win.
The story of the second game started right after the game Friday night. The game Friday started at 7:30pm and finished at 9:30pm. By the time we got out of the rink it was after 10pm. We then went to a sit-down restaurant to eat a post-game meal. The meal was great, but the time it took was not ideal. We didn’t get back to our hotel until about 11:30pm. Some players still needed treatments on injuries and I feel that we didn’t get to sleep at an ideal time. This would ultimately contribute to a poor performance on Saturday afternoon.
The game on Saturday started at 2pm so there was about a 16-hour turnaround between games. With all that said, we can’t use that as an excuse because they had the same turnaround. Concordia came out and outplayed us from the start of the game. We struggled with our decisions with the puck and our overall awareness on the ice. Concordia ended up scoring three second-period goals to take a commanding lead into the third period. Our strong third-period play through the start of the year couldn’t pull us out of this deficit. We were able to outshoot Concordia in the third period by getting 16 shots, but also allowed Concordia to pull ahead and win 5-1.
Looking forward, we have a huge challenge ahead of us this weekend. We have two road games against nationally-ranked opponents. On Friday, we play #13 Eau Claire and on Saturday we play #1 Stevens Point. These teams are always very tough, but especially tough on the road. With that said, if we want to be a national-championship contender, we need to win games like this. These games fall at a great time and will definitely give a look into the depth of our team. In order for us to win, we will need to be fundamentally sound and we will have to take care of the puck. We can’t beat ourselves by turning the puck over and we will need to commit to keeping the game in front of us. Finally, we will need to have great goaltending and we will need to capitalize on the opportunities that we get.
I hope that you are able to listen to the games this weekend or watch them online. Thanks once again for all your support and Go Johnnies!
