Men's Hockey 2/19/05 -- St. John's 5, Augsburg 3

BOXSCORE

ST. CLOUD, Minn. (2/19/05) -- Andy Johnson scored two goals, and goalie Adam Hanna set a St. John's University record with his 19th victory of the season, as the Johnnies rallied to complete a sweep of Augsburg College in Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference men's hockey action with a 5-3 triumph on Saturday at the National Hockey Center.

Trailing 2-0 at the end of the first period, Augsburg scored three goals in a 6:20 span of the second period to take the lead. But just as quickly as Augsburg took the lead, the Johnnies responded with three unanswered goals in the final 4:36 of the period to clinch the win.

With the win, St. John's, the regular-season MIAC champion, finishes its regular season at 22-1-2 overall, 14-1-1 in MIAC play. The Johnnies' 22 victories tie the second-most in a single-season in school history.

With the loss, Augsburg's fourth in a row and sixth in its last 10 games (1-6-3), Augsburg now faces an uphill battle to avoid missing the five-team MIAC postseason playoffs for the second straight year. Augsburg is now 7-11-5 overall, 4-7-3 in MIAC play.

St. John's (29 league points) and St. Thomas (21 points) have already clinched playoff berths, and St. Olaf and Bethel are tied for third with 16 points. St. Mary's and Gustavus have 13 points apiece, while Augsburg has 11 league points. In the final league weekend of the season next Friday and Saturday (2/25-26), St. Olaf faces St. Mary's, while Augsburg faces Gustavus and Bethel faces Hamline (three league points). If Augsburg would sweep Gustavus next weekend, it would finish with 15 points, meaning that the best Augsburg can potentially finish is in fifth place for the final playoff berth.

Johnson scored the first and last goals for St. John's, while Scott Bjorklund had a goal and assist. Aaron Getchell and Dustin Mercado had the other Johnnie goals, and Ryan Langenbrunner had two assists.

Augsburg's goals came from Critter Nagurski (So., International Falls, Minn.), on assists from Cody Swanson (Jr., Vermillion, Minn./Hastings HS) and Steve Collova (Sr., White Bear Lake, Minn.); from Greg May (So., Burnsville, Minn.), on assists from Nagurski and Brett Osness (Jr., Calgary, Alberta/Springbrook HS); and from Joe Haehn (Jr., Minneapolis, Minn./Washburn HS), on assists from Aaron Johnson (So., Plymouth, Minn./Robbinsdale Armstrong HS).

Tony Ciro (Jr., Spring Lake Park, Minn./Hill-Murray HS) made 23 saves for Augsburg. St. John's outshot Augsburg by a 28-24 margin -- including an 18-1 edge in the first period. Hannah made 21 saves for St. John's.

Augsburg hosts Gustavus on Friday (2/25) at 7 p.m. at the Augsburg Ice Arena, and travels to face Gustavus on Saturday (2/26) at 7 p.m. at the Lund Ice Arena in St. Peter, Minn.