Box Score

MEQUON, Wis. – Victory slipped through the hands of the Bethel University men's hockey team Friday night as they were forced to settle with a 5-5 tie on the road against Concordia (Wis.) University. For the second time this season the Royals never trailed in the game, yet were unable to capture their first victory, despite twice holding two goal leads. The Falcons were able to erase 2-0 and 4-2 leads by Bethel, along with a 5-4 Royals lead inside of two minutes remaining in the game. The MIAC is the only conference in NCAA hockey to utilize shootouts, thus the non-conference tilt ended in a tie following a scoreless overtime period.

Bethel jumped out to an early 2-0 lead with goals by Eric Szafranski at 6:06 and Brock Raffaele at 11:34 in the first period. Raffaele's goal was on a Royals power play with Szafranski assisting. Jordan Bledsoe and Jack McFarlane assisted on Szafranski's goal. Concordia was able to tie the game with two goals just over two minutes apart at 13:57 and 16:02 in the first, before EJ Gann gave Bethel the lead back at 3-2 with a goal at the 17:50 mark. Tyler Swanson assisted Gann and the Royals took the one goal advantage into the first intermission. After ten and a half minutes of scoreless play to open the second period, Travis Payne gave Bethel another two goal lead with Grant Dye assisting. Two minutes later Concordia scored again to pull within one at 4-3. The Royals once again maintained a one score lead heading into intermission but, the Falcons came out early in the third period and scored, drawing even again at 4-4. A power play goal by Payne, his second of the night, at 7:06 gave Bethel the lead back and they appeared to be on the verge of claiming their first victory of the season as the game headed into the final minutes. The Falcons were able to tie the game back up, however, with just 1:40 remaining in the game to send the game into overtime. Neither team was able to score in the five minute overtime period, with Bethel getting off three shots while Concordia fired two. 

Concordia outshot Bethel 35-31 for the game but only outshot the Royals in the second period where they held a 14-8 advantage. Steven Bolton made 30 saves in the net for Bethel while a pair of Falcons saw time in goal, making a total of 26 saves. The Royals converted on two of their three power plays while the Falcons were 0-2.

The disappointing tie drops Bethel to 0-7-2 on the season while Concordia is now 2-4-3. The tie left the Royals, once again, painfully close to a victory as they have had just two of their nine games decided by more than one goal this season. The two teams will square off Saturday at 3 p.m. with the winner claiming the first annual Thanksgiving Cup.