Men's Hockey 2/21/09 -- Augsburg 7, St. Olaf 7 (OT)
MINNEAPOLIS (updated 2/22/09) -- In one of the wildest finishes in recent years for the Augsburg College men's hockey team, the Auggies scored five goals in the final 4:43 of regulation, forcing overtime en route to a 7-7 tie with St. Olaf College in the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference regular-season finale for both teams on Saturday night at the Augsburg Ice Arena. And after Sunday's completion of the MIAC regular season, the Auggies qualified for the MIAC postseason playoffs for the second time in the last three years.
Trailing 6-2, Augsburg scored five goals in the final 4:43, including three goals with an extra attacker on the ice after the Auggies pulled their goalie. Nick Guran (FY, McHenry, Ill./McHenry East HS) scored two of the Auggies' final five goals, and Trevor Doden (FY, Red Wing, Minn.) scored the game-tying goal with eight seconds left in regulation time.
With the tie, Augsburg (9-15-1 overall, 8-7-1) finished its regular season in fifth place in the MIAC standings with 17 league points, and will play No. 4-seed Hamline (14-10-1 overall, 9-7-0 MIAC) in the in the tournament's "play-in" game on Thursday (2/26) at 7:15 p.m. at the Drake Ice Arena in St. Paul. In the teams' regular-season meetings, the Auggies swept the Pipers 6-3 on Feb. 6 and 5-4 in overtime on Feb. 7.
St. John's, which had 15 league points after topping St. Mary's 8-2 on Saturday, could have knocked the Auggies out of the playoffs on tiebreaker criteria in its season-finale on Sunday. But the Johnnies fell 5-4 to St. Mary's on Sunday, clinching the berth for the Auggies.
Thursday's "play-in" game winner will face top-seed St. Olaf on Saturday (2/28) at 8 p.m. at the Northfield Ice Arena in the semifinals, with the playoff championship game set for Wednesday, March 4, at the highest remaining seed. The playoff champion receives an automatic bid to the NCAA Division III national tournament.
Chris Johnson (JR, Verona, Wis./Madison Memorial HS) had a career night for the Auggies on Saturday with five assists -- including assists on four of the Auggies' final five goals. He fell one assist shy of the school's single-game record of six, set by Mike LeDuc on Feb. 7, 1997 in a game against Marian (Wis.).
St. Olaf (16-6-3 overall, 12-1-3 MIAC), the MIAC's regular-season champions, were paced by a three-goal hat trick from Sam Windsor (JR, Plymouth, Minn.). Dylan Mueller (SR, Plymouth, Minn./Armstrong HS) and Nick Stalock (SR, South St. Paul, Minn.) had a goal and two assists each for the Oles, with Will Smith (SR, Long Lake, Minn./Orono HS) adding a goal and assist, and Roger Truesdale (SR, Rogers, Minn./Buffalo HS) adding the other Ole goal.
Bryan Frischmann (SO, Rochester, Minn./Century HS) and Brett Way (SR, Grand Ledge, Mich.) scored goals for the Auggies in the first two periods, but the Auggies trailed 6-2 after Windsor scored his second goal of the game at the 8:17 mark of the third period.
The Auggie late-game onslaught started with Guran scoring a power-play goal at the 15:17 mark, assisted by Johnson and David Hines (FY, Sartell, Minn./St. Cloud Tech HS). Chris Slavik (FY, St. Michael, Minn./St. Michael-Albertville HS) then scored his first collegiate goal at the 17:21 mark, assisted by Johnson and Joel Sauer (SO, Madison, Wis./Memorial HS).
Augsburg pulled goalie Andrew Kent (SR, Lakeville, Minn.) six seconds later, and the Auggies took advantage with Sauer scoring from Johnson and Guran to cut the Ole lead to 6-5. But it appeared to be all for naught, as the Auggies took a penalty, and Windsor completed his hat trick for the Oles with an empty-net goal at the 19:15 mark to give the Oles a 7-5 advantage.
However, the miracle finish was completed for the Auggies -- with Guran scoring an empty-net goal from Jim Jensen (SO, Plymouth, Minn./Osseo HS) and Doden nine seconds after Windsor's goal, and Doden scoring from Johnson with eight seconds left to send the game to overtime.
Augsburg had the only three shots-on-goal of overtime, but none could get past St. Olaf goalie Ben Leis (FY, Duluth, Minn.). Augsburg outshot St. Olaf by a 45-30 mark, including a 21-9 advantage in the third period. Kent had 23 saves for the Auggies.
