By Kyle Legouffe

Barkman Arena was the venue where Briercrest hosted the Concordia Thunder in the second of two games over the weekend. Briercrest looked to avenge their loss last night and were not able to as the score was 6-3.

Briercrest will look to finish strong with only two more weekends remaining in the season. This young squad has had to battle all sorts of adversity during the season, with injuries, losing players for various reasons and learning the new systems of a new coach.

The first period was filled with energy as both teams came out taking the body. Concordia opened the scoring and added another to go up 2-0. Christian Mueller was in net and looked good, as he was able to make great saves. Briercrest was able to cut the lead in half, as Manuel Schellenberg was able to put one past Thunder goaltender Tommy Sandahl. There were five penalties in the frame as Concordia took three and Briercrest took two. The shots in the period were in favour of Concordia 16-12.

The middle 20 had more intensity and big body checks. Briercrest was still chasing Concordia as they trailed by five at one point. Josh Dufrense was able to get Briercrest’s second goal as he just flipped the puck in on net and beat Sandahl on a weird bounce. Each team took two penalties in the frame as both sides were getting fired up. Christian Mueller was forced to come out of the net as he sustained an injury; Jesse Chenard came in and played like his normal self by making great saves. The score at the end of two was 6-2 for Concordia. The shots in the period were 15-11 for Briercrest and the two period total was 27-27.

The last frame was full of emotion as there was pushing and shoving after whistles. Concordia started to get upset as Greg Hennessey was shown the gate after slashing Morgan McNeill and then punching Pierre Landry in the head. Patrick Turville of Concordia also hit the showers early as he was hit by Mike Fischer and retaliated by spearing and punching Fischer. Besides the misconducts there were six minor penalties as the Thunder took four and Briercrest took two. The shots in the period were 9-5 for Concordia and the game total was 36-31 for the Thunder.  

Number 24 Tyler Stevenson of Concordia and number three Josh Dufrense for Briercrest were the players of the game as Stevenson had one goal and one assist and Dufrense had one goal.

Briercrest will be on the road next weekend as they go to play the Augustana Vikings.