By now you may have already heard, but the Johnnies lost the MIAC Championship 2-1 March 2nd in a four-overtime marathon. It was a great game and a great atmosphere to play in, but it was a test for the boys both physically and mentally. This was the second time in 4 years that our season ended in a marathon at Augsburg’s ice arena.
It was a defensive battle for most of the game with great goaltending as I mentioned in my last blog. Augsburg scored a power-play goal in the second period to take the 1-0 lead that held up until the final minutes of the game. We pulled our goalie with about 1:40 left and were able to score to tie the game at 1-1. That score held up for another three periods. I should mention that those periods were also full 20-minute periods, so the boys ended up playing over two full games that night. In the end, we gave up a breakaway late in the third overtime before taking a penalty chasing the player down. Augsburg capitalized on the power play at the start of the fourth overtime to win the game 2-1. It was an absolute heart breaker and was one of the toughest ways to end a season. I am sure it will take the team a long time to get over this loss, but we will get over it and will move on to chase a championship in 2019-20.
The game had a lot of interesting story lines that will be easier to list than to write in a paragraph.
* The game was the second-longest in NCAA Division III Hockey history at 4 hours and 48 minutes. The game started at 7pm and ended just before midnight. The game also lasted 121 actual playing minutes, or just over 2 full games.
* Andrew Lindgren broke the SJU Hockey saves record in one game with 86 saves on 88 shots.
* There wasn’t a single 5-on-5 goal scored in the game. Augsburg scored two power-play goals and SJU scored with the goalie pulled, 6-on-5.
* SJU got out-shot 32-9 in the first two periods before holding Augsburg to 5 shots in the third period. The momentum of the game really turned in our favor from the third period on with numerous chances to win the game. This included 18 shots for SJU in the 3rd overtime.
* The game ended with SJU having 58 shots and Augsburg having 88 shots.
* The players started cramping up in the 3rd overtime so the players that were not dressed for the game ended up running down to the local gas station and buying them out of all their Gatorade and Snickers bars. It is not every day that someone enters a gas station and spends about $100 on Gatorade and Snickers.
* A photographer from D3photography.com left Collegeville after the first overtime and the NCAA basketball game at SJU and managed to make it to Augsburg for the 3rd and 4th overtime. There are more stories of people in the Twin Cities hearing the game was going on and leaving to try and catch the overtime part of the game and getting to see an entire game.
This was an experience that the guys will never forget, but it will hurt for a while because we were not able to finish with the win. The boys played hard and deserved better. I will write another blog recapping the season when I am ready to move on from this season.
Thanks for following Johnnie Hockey and we all appreciate your support!
