It was a good weekend for Johnnie Hockey! We went into the weekend in 4th place and left the weekend in 2nd. This secured us a home game this Saturday against St. Thomas, instead of hosting the play-in game this Thursday and then going on the road against Augsburg. For all this to happen, we needed some things to fall in our favor. First, we needed to sweep Gustavus and get the six points. Then we needed two loses by Concordia against Augsburg and one loss by St. Thomas to Hamline. We got all three of these things to fall in our favor on Saturday to finish second in the MIAC.
Looking back at our series against Gustavus, we got the two wins, but still have a lot to improve to have success in the playoffs. SJU won the game on Thursday night, 2-0. In this game, junior goalie Andrew Lindgren got the shutout by saving all 44 shots he faced. He was by far the player of the game and got us the win on that night. We turned around and won Saturday night 7-5 in a game that was a complete contrast to Thursday night. We got three goals from the Kirkendall/Stautz/Okeley line. We ended up pulling Lindgren and got a good performance from sophomore goalie Mac Berglove, who stepped in and let in one goal on 20 shots. It really was the tale of two different games, but the biggest positive is that we found a way to win two games in two different ways.
Looking forward to the playoff game this Saturday, we face St. Thomas for the fourth time this year ( 1-1-1 record). We lost the season opener 3-2 in the MIAC showcase and then tied 2-2 and won 4-1 in the MIAC regular-season games. This is truly the rubber match and should be a great day of hockey. The game will be played at 2pm with the potential of SJU Basketball playing in the MIAC Championship on the same day at 7pm.
I hope to see some of you in the rink this Saturday as it should be a great atmosphere for a Johnnie/Tommie MIAC Semifinal matchup.
Go Johnnies!
