Well, we sure had a rollercoaster weekend this past weekend against Saint Mary’s. Friday night we lost in overtime, 3-2. It was an interesting road to get to that point in that game with tying it up late in the third period with our goalie pulled. We felt like we had the momentum after out-shooting them 19-4 in the third period and scoring that late goal, but unfortunately we gave up a good opportunity in the overtime and they capitalized to get the win. On Saturday night, we continued the torrid pace of shots on net, out-shooting them 21-10 in the first period and 17-8 in the second and third periods. All together we out-shot them 55-26 on the night. This was a season high for shots on net for us, but through two periods and 38 shots on net we found ourselves down 4-2 entering the third. With that said we came out hard in the third and were able to get three unanswered goals to get the win, 5-4. Huba Sekesi had a good weekend scoring two goals and adding one assist for three total points and most importantly, the game-winning goal on Saturday night.
Moving forward we have two tough games against Augsburg this weekend to continue our fight for a playoff spot. We have a chance to catch two teams ahead of us still, Hamline and Saint Mary’s. If we catch either team we will have the tie-breaker against them because we will have more wins. The hardest part of all this to this point is that we are out of a playoff spot currently because we have lost two shootouts and Concordia has won two shootouts. This is not the way that I want to be out of a playoff spot, but we have put ourselves in this position and we can only control what is ahead of us.
Going into the weekend here are the games to watch and the scenarios that need to happen for us to make the playoffs.
Friday Night: Saturday Night:
Augsburg @ SJU 7pm SJU @ Augsburg 7:00pm
Gustavus @ Hamline 7pm Hamline @ Gustavus 7:00pm
Concordia @ Bethel Concordia @ Bethel 2:00pm
The only way that we can catch Hamline is if they get swept by Gustavus and we win both of our games against Augsburg. In order for us to catch Concordia, we need them to lose at least one game to Bethel and we need to win both games against Augsburg or at least get two points more than them on the weekend. This is going to be a tall task with both Hamline and Concordia playing the bottom two teams in the league in Bethel and Gustavus, which have combined for four conference wins the entire season. On the other hand, we are playing Augsburg that is tied for first place with St. Thomas and fighting for a MIAC Championship. With all that said, I have seen crazier things happen and we are playing for our lives, so you never know what you are going to get when your backs are up against the wall.
I hope to see you at our games this weekend and I am looking forward to celebrating our six seniors this Friday night for our senior night celebration.
Go Johnnies!
