Falcons Advance in the NCHA Tournament!!!
The NCHA O'Brien Cup Semifinals and Finals will be played this weekend at Hunt Arena in River Falls, with CUW playing undefeated #1 UW-River Falls (23-0-4) on Friday at 3pm. This will be the first time in program history that the Falcons will be part of the tournament semifinals.
Eau Claire
The Concordia women's hockey team entered the night down one game to none in their best of three NCHA Tournament Quarterfinal series with UW-Eau Claire, but by nights end the Falcons defeated the Blugolds in game two, 5-4, battled to a 0-0 tie in the mini-game three, before winning 1-0 in a sudden victory mini-game four. Over three hours after dropping the puck for the first time, CUW has advanced to the NCHA Tournament Semifinals hosted by UW-River Falls next weekend.
To get the night started, UW-Eau Claire took a 1-0 lead just 67 seconds into game two. The Falcons tied the game when Alyssa Isaackson lit the lamp off an assist from Steph Boehm, prior to the Blugolds going back in front 2-1. Alisha Java then tallied a power play goal off assists from Sarah Luberda and Sam Meuwissen, before UW-Eau Claire got a power play goal of their own to go up 3-2. Right before the end of an action packed first period, Amber Cjmela tied the game at 3-3 off a pass from Hilary Christiansen.
Tied at 3-3, Sarah Luberda put the Falcons up 4-3 with just 23 seconds left in the second period. UW-Eau Claire would tie the contest with 10:03 remaining, only for Sarah Luberda to score a dramatic game-winning goal with just 33 seconds left in regulation. For Luberda, it was her 12th goal of the season, assisted by Sam Meuwissen and Jaime Athens. Winning 5-4, the Falcons forced a winner takes all mini-game three roughly 20 minutes later.
After neither team scored in the mini-game three, the two teams battled in a sudden victory mini-game four. Just over 2:12 in, Sam Meuwiseen took a Jaime Athens pass and punched the Falcons ticket into the NCHA Tournament Semifinals. Meuwissen finished with one goal and two assists on the night, helping the Falcons improve to a school-record 13-10-4 mark.
