This past Valentine’s Day weekend, the St. Olaf men’s and women’s hockey teams took on the Cobbers of Concordia College in a back-to-back series. The men hosted their two tilts in Northfield, splitting the series with the Cobbers, while the women traveled to Moorhead for two evening matchups, coming up short in both games.
Adam Wiertzema of Concordia opened up the scoring on Friday evening against the Oles when he buried a loose rebound six minutes into the first period. The Cobbers tallied two more goals in the second period to take a commanding 3-0 lead.
The resilient Oles battled back. Just over three minutes into the third period, Ole Setsaas ’16 buried a power-play goal off of a slick back-hand pass from Andy Jordhal ’17, cutting the Cobbers’ lead to 3-1. The score remained unchanged for the next ten minutes.
Despite the score, the Oles proved the Cobber lead to be fragile. With seven minutes left in the third period, the St. Olaf offense found its rhythm. A goal from Mark Rath ’16, who tipped a shot from defenseman Connor Quinn ’16, set off the attack. Forty seconds later, Connor Tedstrom ’16 blasted home a one-time slap shot from the blue line off of a pass from Jonas Fredriksson ’17. With the game tied at 3-3, the Oles quickly scored three more goals to end the game at 6-3. JT Paine ’17 scored the game-winner, with Patrick Sivets ’17 and Setsaas adding on two more to seal the victory.
On Saturday, following a ceremony honoring the senior players and their families, the Oles were unable to maintain the momentum they gathered at the end of Friday’s game. Jordie Bancroft of Concordia scored a hat trick, and despite several power-play opportunities, the Oles were not able to score on Concordia’s goaltender.
In Moorhead, the women’s team jumped off the bus and got off to a quick start Friday evening, with two early goals in the first period from Jane Vezina ’18 and Megan Skelly ’17. Unfortunately, the Oles were unable to hold on to the lead; Concordia scored three goals in the second period and another in the third. The Cobbers won the game with a final score of 4-2.
The women’s game on Saturday was similar to the men’s game in Northfield. Concordia sophomore Tori Davis scored a hat trick while the Oles were shut out by the Concordia goaltender, losing 3-0.
Both teams will close out the regular season against the University of St. Thomas in back-to-back tilts next weekend. The men play at home on Feb. 19 at 7:30 p.m., and the women play in Northfield on Feb. 20 at 2:00 p.m.
