Box Score

MINNEAPOLIS - The Bethel Royals took to the ice tonight trying to earn their first conference victory of the 2008-09 season. Despite out-shooting the Augsburg Auggies 36-23 and capitalizing on three of their six power play opportunities, the Royals fell short by a score of 5-3.

Augsburg scored first when Jim Jensen connected with Joel Sauer to net a shorthanded goal with just 24 seconds remaining in the first period. Chris Johnson went on to make the score 2-0 in favor of the Auggies at the 12:35 mark of the second period, with an assist going to David Hines.

It wasn't until 17:13 into the second period that Bethel answered with a goal of their own to cut their deficit in half. Kent Bostrom (Sr., Vadnais Heights, Minn.) scored his third goal of the season with the help of Chris Fiala (Fr., Vadnais Heights, Minn.) on a power play.  However, less than a minute later, the Auggies regained their two goal lead when Trevor Doden scored with assists being credited to Hines and Bryan Frischmann.

Augsburg then added to their lead 5:34 into the third period when Johnson scored his second goal of the night and the team's second shorthanded goal of the night. But with an Auggie still in the penalty box after the goal, the Royals still had a chance to take advantage of the man advantage. Eric Adams (Sr., Litchfield, Minn.) did just that by scoring his second goal of the season, with an assist going to Jake Kogler (Fr.,  Forest Lake, Minn.) to make the score 4-2 in favor of Augsburg.

A little over two minutes after Adams' goal, the Auggies struck again to go back up by three when Johnson earned a hat trick with his third goal of the night.  John Lennartson and Ben Roberts each got credit for the assist.

But Bethel continued to fight back, though, it would not be enough. Skating with a man advantage once again, the Royals scored with just 16 seconds remaining on their power play. This time, Brad Peterson (Sr., Bloomington, Minn.) scored his fourth goal of the season with the help of Bostrom and Fiala.

The Royals were unable score any more goals, thus falling to 3-2-1 overall and 0-2 in the conference. Augsburg improves to 2-3 overall and 2-0 in the conference with the win. Bethel is scheduled to take on Saint John's next Thursday night at 7 p.m. at the National Hockey Center in St. Cloud, Minn., for their next game.