Last weekend, the Men’s Hockey team moved into a tie for first place in the MIAC standings with a win and a loss against Gustavus. The split brought the Auggies’ record to 13-6 overall with a 7-3 mark in MIAC play. The Auggies will share the conference lead with Gustavus and St. John’s.
The weekend did not kick off in favor of the Auggies as they fell 4-1 at the hands of Gustavus in St. Peter. Will Peterson had the only goal for the Auggies in the contest: a second-period score assisted by Max Pernhem. Though the Auggies were able to keep the score to 2-1 until very late in the third period, the Gustie offense proved to overwhelm the Auggies, tallying two empty net goals in the closing minutes to put the game out of reach. In net, Nick Schmit had 29 saves for Augsburg.
Saturday night’s contest proved to be another exciting finish between the Gusties and the Auggies, as it came down to the last moments of the game yet again. This time, however, the Auggies prevailed in the nail-biting contest by a margin of 3-2. The goal scorers for the Auggies in the game included Chandler Madry, Alex Rodriguez and Brett Bukowski. Nick Schmit had another solid performance between the pipes for Augsburg, recording 28 saves to propel the home team to victory.
It will be an exciting finish to the MIAC season for the Auggies as they aim to capture their third conference title in a row. Augsburg will close the last three weeks of the season against conference foes St. Olaf, St. John’s and Concordia-Moorhead.
The Auggies will host St. Olaf in a Friday night tilt at Ed Saugestad Arena.The puck is scheduled to drop at 7 p.m.
This article first appeared in the Friday, January 26, 2018, Edition of The Echo.