Junior Maiah McCowan scored the Cobbers' first goal of the year in their season opener at St. Benedict.
Junior Maiah McCowan scored the Cobbers' first goal of the year in their season opener at St. Benedict.
November 1, 2019

Successful Start Fades In Opener

Concordia scored the first goal o the season opener but then gave up two goals in a span of 41 seconds and lost 3-1 at St. Benedict.

Box Score

ST. CLOUD, Minn. (11/01/19)---After 10 minutes of play against St. Benedict it looked like the Cobbers were headed for a successful season opener. Concordia scored the opening goal of the game at the 5:11 mark and were outshooting the Bennies. The opener then took a turn for the worse as the Cobbers gave up a pair of goals 41-seconds apart and went on to fall 3-1. 

The game goes in the books as a non-conference contest and doesn't count against the Cobbers' MIAC record. 

Concordia is now 5-5 in season openers in the past 10 seasons. The start of the year has been tough in recent years as CC is 2-5 in openers since the 2013-14 season.   

Junior Maiah McCowan gave Concordia the early 1-0 lead when she notched her fourth career goal when the teams were playing even-strength hockey. Brenna Mjoness and Mackenzie Bergstrom earned the assists on the Cobbers' first goal of the season. 

Concordia would have a pair of chances to double the lead in the next five minutes of play as St. Benedict took a pair of penalties. The Cobbers couldn't take advantage of the extra skater and then the Bennies pounced for two goals in 41 seconds starting at the 13:12 mark. CSB scored on their fourth shot of the gamer and then again on their fifth shot at 13:53.

St. Benedict held a 12-9 edge in shots in the first period but the Cobbers would do that one better in the second period when they outshot the Bennies 13-9.

The last goal of the game was an empty-net tally after Concordia pulled freshman goalie Kiana Flaig at 19:24 of the third period. CSB finished the game with the last goal at 19:56 to push the final score to 3-1.

The Cobbers were outshot 35-29 for the game. Neither team was able to score on the power play. CC went 0-for-2 with their only two power plays coming in the first frame. St. Benedict went 0-for-3 on the man-advantage situation.

Flaig made 28 saves in her college debut.        

UP NEXT: Concordia will host its home opener next weekend when they battle Northland on Friday and Saturday, Nov. 8-9. The Lumberjills dropped their season opener to Bethel on Friday.