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The action over the first seven plus minutes of quarterfinal #2 were fast paced and controlled by Concordia University WI, who spent almost all of that time exclusively in their offensive zone. Luckily, Asher Motew stood tall in net and blocked every shot on net. At 7:38, a scrum in front of Motew led to matching minors. Playing 4-on-4, DePaul’s Brock Ash slid his way through the Concordia defense and had a prime opportunity to give DePaul the lead but shot wide of the net. During an ensuing powerplay at 9:34, Wyatt Wilderman broke into the DePaul zone and wristed a hard shot, from the top of the left circle, past Motew and into the upper glove corner to break the scoreless streak at the 11:20 mark. DePaul got their first taste of a sustained offensive zone presence around the 16 minute mark and it lasted for almost two minutes. However, when Concordia was finally able to get the puck out of the zone, they ended up with a two on two rush up the ice. DePaul missed checking Jonathan Grodzki off on the boards and that would cost them. By Grodzki making it through the check he was able to take the puck around the net uncontested and fed it to a waiting Trenton Sherman, who one timed the puck into the back of the net with 2:22 left in the period. When the horn sounded the end of the first period, Concordia held a 2-0 lead.

 

Concordia put their powerplay unit on the ice after Dace Potas was whistled for elbowing at the 2:15 mark of the second period. DePaul’s penalty kill unit was doing their job as Concordia could not get setup in the DePaul zone, but then at 3:44 a tripping penalty added one more DePaul player to the penalty box. DePaul weathered the 35 seconds of 5-on-3 and then turned their attention to killing off the remainder of the single man advantage. Concordia’s powerplay would not be denied and at the 5:04 mark Gabriel D’Asto took a pass from Cody Faber just inside the left dot and shot high, ringing the puck off the crossbar and into the net. The Concordia powerplay did not get much rest as they were back on the ice at 6:47. With 17 seconds left in their man advantage Scott Gregor caught Motew moving to right when taking a reverse pass from behind the net and snuck one over the goal line, giving Concordia a 4-0 lead. An ill-advised pass attempt across ice from Concordia’s own goal line hit Mack Willy, but the ensuing rebound gave Jackson Leptich a chance to feed the puck to Jack Hemmingway, leading to DePaul’s first goal of the game at the 16:25 mark. With 1:56 left before the second intermission Sherman went to the penalty box for slashing, giving DePaul an opportunity to cut the deficit to two. DePaul had a couple of good chances, but the best chance laid with Matt Gregor on a breakaway as the final seconds ticked away. Luckily for DePaul, Motew stood tall and the score stayed 4-1.

 

Period three began with DePaul needing to kill off an early penalty, which they did to keep the deficit at three. The action the rest of the period was a mix of up and down the ice and tremendous goalie play as each goaltender made a number of amazing saves to keep the score from changing. With neither team able to add to their goal total over the final 20 minutes, Concordia took the 4-1 victory and a place in the semifinals.