Special teams and Long's hat trick give Pipers win over Concordia

The Pipers went six-for-seven on the power play, and only allowed the Cobbers four power play opportunites, during which Concordia scored two of their three goals.

Hamline scored early in the MIAC contest, with their first power play goal coming from Dustin Fulton's (Jr., Brooklyn Park, Minn.) score at 2:09 in the first period on assists from Long and Jared Hummel (Fy., Eagan, Minn.). Just four minutes later, the same trio, this time with the defenseman of the group, Long, scoring the goal, gave the Pipers a 2-0 lead in another power play set-up.

Concordia struck back, scoring three unanswered goals in response at 10:15, 12:40 and 17:07 in the first period - the first two goals coming on power plays. Sophomore defenseman Cory Krogen (Marshall, Minn.) evened the score with 22 seconds remaining in the first period on Hamline's third power play score of the game. He was assisted by Hummel and Fulton.

In the second period, Hamline scored three unanswered goals to mount a 6-3 lead heading into the final 20 minutes of the game. Kyle Kurr (So., Elk River, Minn.) scored two goals to sandwich Long's second goal of the game. Kurr's first goal turned out to be the game-winner and one of only two even-strength Piper goals. The score came at 1:16 in the period, on assists from Jim Erickson (Jr., Brooklyn Park, Minn.) and Steve Festler (Jr., Little Falls, Minn.)

Long then scored an even-strength goal at 7:47 to put the Pipers up 5-3, with assists credited to Fulton and Andrew Birkholz (So., Maple Grove, Minn.). Kurr completed the second period scoring by contributing the Pipers' fifth power play goal and sixth goal of the game at 18:42 on assists from Chris Johnson (So., Brooklyn Park, Minn.) and Justin Hanna (Jr., Little Canada, Minn.).

As Hamline entered the third period with a 6-3 lead, Long finished off his hat trick with an goal at 3:25 on assists from Tony Roth (Fy., White Bear Lake, Minn.) and Ryan Shelafoe (Fy., Forest Lake, Minn.).

The eighth and final Hamline goal - and the sixth Piper power play goal -  of the game came at 7:34 from Festler, with assists credited to Kurr and Erickson.

Hamline had six multi-point scorers in the game, and four players who scored both a goal and an assist. The Pipers were led by Long's four points on three goals and an assist, as well as Fulton's hat trick of assists, with his three assists combining with a goal for four points. Kurr had three points (two goals, one assist), and Festler had a goal and an assist during the night.

Sophomore goalie Zach Faust (White Bear Lake, Minn.) earned the win, making 30 saves in the game.

The Pipers improved to 2-3-2, 2-1-0 MIAC, while Concordia dropped to 1-5-0, 0-1-0 MIAC as they played their first conference game of the season.

The same two teams will meet once again Saturday night at 7:15 p.m. at Drake Arena to finish the series.