Fort Wayne, Ind. — What is turning into a nightmare tradition will sadly last another season, as the Aquinas men's hockey team lost 3-2 in overtime to Concordia on Friday evening (Feb. 24) in Fort Wayne, Ind. It's the third straight season the Saints (15-20) have lost in overtime to be knocked out of the WHAC Tournament.
No. 4-seeded Concordia (18-18) scored 3:21 into the extra frame to end the Saints' season. Hunter Kepple, from the top of the left circle, snapped in the game-winning goal to ignite the Cardinals' enthusiastic celebration.
A hard sight to swallow for the No. 5-seeded Saints after they had scored first, battled back to tie the game late in the third period and had a couple of quality chances in overtime as well. Yet, it wasn't meant to be.
AQ defenseman
Mason Stewart buried the opening goal of the contest roughly seven and a half minutes into the game.
Shane DiTullio and
Matt Denhartigh picked up the helpers. It was Stewart's eighth goal of the season.
The Cardinals eventually answered back on a power-play opportunity with two minutes remaining in the second period after Aquinas hung onto its lead for approximately 25 minutes of game time. Quinn Bieniek passed the puck over to Seth Francois, who got a shot past AQ goaltender
Michael Allman for the equalizer.
Allman had saved 26 shots before finally getting beat. He finished with a game-high 43 saves, compared to Concordia's Anthony Seykora with 37 saves — four of which came in overtime. The Cardinals ended up narrowly outshooting the Saints, 46-39.
Concordia thought they had avoided overtime when Tyler Bieniek scored with just under nine minutes left in the third period. Sam Sahr and Garrett Benoit picked up points with a pair of assists.
AQ's leading goal scorer this season,
Dylan Rumpke, rescued the Saints with a short-handed goal with 5:19 remaining to knot the score back up at 2-2.
Brendan McCatty provided the breakout pass up the boards that sprung Rumpke free.
It was Rumpke's team-leading 24th goal of the season. That's the most goals an Aquinas skater has ever scored in a single season at the ACHA Division I level.
Both teams settled in for more hockey after the third-period horn sounded. The pressure mounting, as one goal would now decided the fate of an entire season for both sides.
Aquinas put the pressure on early, but the decisive goal ended up on the stick of Kepple, assisted by Shane Romback. The goal was scored moments after Jackson Blough and
Gavin Phillips both went to the penalty box to serve delay of game minor penalties.
The Saints committed seven penalties to the Cardinals' three.
With the win, Concordia sweeps the season series between the two teams, 5-0, and advances to the conference semifinals to face top-seeded hosts Indiana Tech on Saturday (Feb. 25).
