Sunday's Championship Game vs. Indiana Tech:
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The Aquinas men's hockey team found itself trailing Concordia 2-0 in the WHAC Semifinals on Saturday evening (Mar. 20) in Fort Wayne, Ind. AQ was able to tie the score in regulation with a pair of power play goals and won the game on an overtime power play goal from
Darren Johnson to advance the Saints to Sunday's WHAC Championship game.
AQ, the second seed in the tournament, moves to 8-5 on the year with the victory. Third-seeded Concordia falls to 6-6 overall. The teams missed all four regular season matchups due to COVID issues, making Saturday's contest the first game between the schools this season.
With the victory, Aquinas will take on top-seeded Indiana Tech in Fort Wayne on Sunday (Mar. 21) in the WHAC Championship at 2:00 p.m. The teams played a pair of one-goal games this season, with AQ winning 4-3 on Feb. 26 at Southside before the Warriors responded with a 2-1 home win on Feb. 27.
On Saturday, Concordia jumped to an early 2-0 lead with a pair of goals in the opening six minutes. It remained a two-goal advantage until late in the second period, when Johnson got the Saints on the board with a goal at the 14:03 mark.
Brandon Schwandt and
Daniel Nelson registered assists on the power play tally.
Early in the third period, AQ tied things up as
Brandon Rozema delivered the equalizer, scoring another power play goal for the Saints. Johnson and
Kyle Truax were credited with assists on the tying goal at the 3:04 mark in the period. Neither team would find the back of the net the rest of the period, sending the semifinal matchup to overtime.
In the extra session, Johnson completed the comeback and sent the Saints to the championship with the game-winning goal, as he took a feed from
Nick Stockert and put it in the back of the net for the 3-2 win. It was the third power play goal for AQ on Saturday.
The Saints outshot Concordia by a 43-27 margin, while Aquinas goalie
Roman Malkov stopped 25 shots in the victory.
Links for Sunday's championship game can be found at the top of this page.