Purdue University NW punches ticket to the finals, defeating Concordia University WI:
Purdue University NW came out and set the tone to start Semifinal #1, spending most of the time in the Concordia University WI zone. During those opening minutes PNW’s best chance to get the early lead happened just over five minutes in when CUW stopped a PNW breakaway. At the 7:28 mark the game’s first penalty would be whistled on PNW, a holding penalty on Nick Lafornara. The PNW penalty kill blocked two shots and the score remained 0-0. CUW would get a second chance at the power play when a long outlet pass over the PNW defense to an awaiting Tommy Cassel, who got behind the defense, lead to a holding penalty at 11:26. Once again the CUW powerplay unit came up empty. After having to kill off two early penalties PNW got their powerplay chance at 15:22, but were shut down by the CUW penalty kill unit. Right as PNW’s penalty expired they were back in the box at 17:27. On the ensuing powerplay, Jacob Behnke deflected the puck out of zone and raced towards the CUW goaltender, Austin Bartell, with his teammate Owen Ott right behind for a 2-on-0. Behnke converted with a shot glove side for a shorthanded goal to give PNW the lead at 18:46. 

 

It took 2:33 to elapse in the second period before PNW was back on the powerplay. With 11 seconds left of 5-on-4, Colin Kozijn took a pass from Behnke in the low slot and found the back of the net. A penalty on PNW at 6:25 put CUW’s powerplay unit back on the ice. The third time was the charm as they needed only 14 seconds to pull back within one off the stick of Garrett Wilderman, who received a pass from Cassel at the top of the slot that he buried into the upper corner. Bartlett was unable to glove a shot by Blake Witkowski and Kozijn put home the bouncing rebound at 11:01 to give PNW a 3-1 lead. CUW would have two more powerplay opportunities in the final 9 minutes of the second period but came up empty. They negated the second with a penalty of their own, giving PNW the advantage to start the third period. 

 

Starting the third period up 3-1 and with 1:07 of man advantage left, PNW was not able to add to their lead. CUW cut the lead back to one at 5:26 when Brandon Ballweg, who was left alone in front of the PNW net, took a pass from Rocco Cicirello and beat a sprawling John Hughes to get back within one. After a flurry of action in the PNW zone a whistle for a faceoff led to CUW calling timeout and pulling their goalie with 1:21 remaining. Right off the faceoff Kozijn out raced the CUW defender and scored an empty net goal at 18:46 for what they hoped was the clinching goal. However, CUW pulled their goalie again at 19:00 and with 15 seconds left scored to make it 4-3. The deficit was too much and CUW could not find the equalizer in the final 15 seconds. As a result, their quest to repeat fell short and PNW earned their first finals appearance for the Hap Cup.