(Ann Arbor, MI) - The Concordia Cardinals men's hockey team prepares for the Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference (WHAC) Quarterfinals with their first matchup being against the Saints of Aquinas College.
Game Information
#5 Concordia Cardinals vs #4 Aquinas Saints
February 16th | 1 pm | UM-Dearborn Ice Arena | Dearborn, MI
About the Saints
The Saints finished the regular season with an 18-16-1 overall record while compiling a 13-10-1 WHAC record. Aquinas opened up their season by going 2-4 in their first three non-conference series before WHAC play. The start of conference play was very streaky for the Saints as they started with a sweep of Rochester before losing the next 6 games. They then righted the ship and took the next four series. Down the stretch Aquinas went 3-4-1, earning the fourth seed in the WHAC.
On the offensive side, Aquinas has four players with 30 or more points this season, led by Second Team All-WHAC player Brandon Rozema with 19 goals and 22 assists. Dylan Rumpke is the next highest in points with 13 goals and 24 assists. Christian Look leads the team with 27 assists along with his 9 goals. Alex Johnson rounds out the group with 12 goals and 18 assists.
Three goaltenders have shared time for the Saints with all of them logging over 375 minutes between the pipes. Max Johnston has received the bulk of the time with 482 goals against average and 560 saves. Randon Striplin and Michael Allman have averaged save percentages of 90.0 and 93.9 respectively.
About the Cardinals
The Cardinals finished the season with a 12-15-3 overall record while collecting an 9-13-2 conference record. Concordia began its season with a 3-0-1 start against Duquesne and John Carroll. The Cards had a back and forth conference campaign, highlighted by three wins over ranked opponents in Lawrence Tech, UM-Dearborn, and Indiana Tech.
On the offensive side, the Cardinals were led by four players who had 10 or more goals. Kyle Hebner led the charge with 14, followed by Quinn Bieniek with 13. Derek Hebner and Carson Ediger both tacked on 10 goals. Concordia passed the puck well, with 7 different Cardinals tallying over 10 assists, led by Brandon Troyer with 16.
Zachary Janis and Anthony Seykora split time together in goal for the Cardinals. Janis allowed 3.55 goals per game while stopping 89.1% of shots. Seykora allowed 3.97 while preventing 88.8% of shots faced.
In Case You Missed It (Previous Matchups)
The Saints had the upper hand in the regular season meetings between the two sides as Concordia went 0-3-1 against Aquinas on the year. The series was a close one throughout as all four games had a margin of two goals or less.
The first two games were played in November, with both resulting in close wins of two or less goals from the Saints.
Earlier this month the two teams met up again and the series continued to stay competitive. The Cardinals forced the first game into overtime, but fell in a shootout. Then the final matchup saw the Saints win 3-1.
WHAC Tournament
All games will be hosted by UM-Dearborn at the UM-Dearborn Ice Arena in Dearborn, Michigan.
Quarterfinals, February 16th
#1 Indiana Tech (23-10-1, 20-3-1) - Bye
#4 Aquinas (18-16-1, 13-10-1) vs #5 Concordia (12-15-3, 9-13-2) - 1pm
#2 Lawrence Tech (19-11-0, 17-7-0) vs #7 Rochester (0-28-0, 0-24-0) - 4pm
#3 UM-Dearborn (19-9-2, 15-7-2) vs #6 Cleary (16-20-0, 10-14-0) - 7pm
Semifinals, February 17th
#1 Indiana Tech vs Winner #5/#4 - 3pm
Winner #2/#7 vs Winner #3/#6 - 7pm
Championship, February 18th
Semifinals winners - 1 pm
