Women's Hockey 2/16/07 -- Augsburg 3, Concordia-Moorhead 1

BOXSCORE

STORY FROM CONCORDIA-MOORHEAD SPORTS INFORMATION

MOORHEAD, Minn. (2/16/07) -- In the end, the three-goal, first-period deficit was just too much for Concordia College-Moorhead to overcome, as the Cobbers fell 3-1 to Augsburg College in a Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference women's hockey game on Friday at the Moorhead Sports Center.

The loss was not from a lack of trying on the Cobbers' part, as they outshot the Auggies 41-17 for the game and after the first period of play, had the majority of the possession and quality chances. But Augsburg goalie Toni Menth (Fr., Buffalo, Minn.) collected 40 saves to pick up the win for the Auggies.

The setback delivers a crucial blow to Concordia's playoff hopes. Concordia is now 6-11-2 overall, but falls to 5-9-1 in conference play and slides below Augsburg into eighth place in the league standings. The Auggies keep their playoff hopes alive and move to 8-10-4 overall and 5-7-3 in the MIAC.

The two biggest blows of the game came midway through the opening period. The Auggies were able to net a pair of goals less than one minute apart. The first goal at 9:47 came on a picture-perfect feed from Jackie Keller * (Jr., Traverse City, Mich./Traverse City West HS) that split the Cobber defense down the middle and found the waiting stick of Caryn Quist (So., St. Cloud, Minn./Cathedral HS) -- who was all alone on the CC blueline. Quist then skated in and finished off the breakaway to put the Auggies ahead 1-0. Augsburg then added to the lead 54 seconds later when Sara Toft (Fr., Alexandria, Minn./Jefferson HS) connected on her sixth goal of the season, assisted by Katie Medd (Jr., Mankato, Minn./East HS).

Concordia fell even further behind with less than two minutes to go in the opening period when Tiffany Magnuson (So., Green Bay, Wis./Notre Dame Academy HS) scored her team-leading 19th goal of the season, assisted by Quist.

The first intermission was just what the Cobbers needed as they regrouped in the locker room and then proceeded to make it an exciting game for the final 40 minutes of play. Concordia showed the promise of an outstanding comeback at the 1:30 mark of the second frame when Erin Johnson slid the puck past Auggie goalie Menth from the left side of the crease.

Unfortunately, that would be the only goal Concordia would get for the remainder of the game, despite outshooting Augsburg 23-12 in the final two periods.

Menth was able to make the Auggies three-goal outburst in the first period hold up, as she stopped 40 shots in the game to record her eighth win of the year. The game marks Menth's 14th 30-plus-save performance in her 21 starts this season, and her third game in a row with 40 or more saves. She has six 40-plus-save performances this season.

Concordia used both goalies in the game. Amber Malcolm made the start and turned aside two shots in the first period. Maddie Haroldson came on after the opening period and made 12 saves in the final two periods of play.

The two teams will finish off the two-game series on Saturday (2/17) at 2 p.m. at the Moorhead Sports Center.