The last two seasons of men’s hockey ended very differently for the Pipers. Last season, they snuck into the playoffs by one point despite losing the last two games of their season. This season, they were only able to make the playoffs because they picked up two wins on the final weekend of the regular season. Last season, they won the MIAC playoff tournament. This season, they were unable to sneak past top-ranked Augsburg in the playoffs and fell 2-5 last Saturday, Feb. 27.

The Pipers counted goals from sophomore defenseman Garrett Schmitz and first-year forward Mitch McPherson, with assists going to sophomore Brandon Reinholz on the Schmitz goal, and by senior forward Brandon Zurn and sophomore defenseman Jesse Kessler on the McPherson goal.

“On paper we were considered underdogs,” said sophomore defenseman Mitch Hall. “It’s all about peaking at the right time and coming into the playoffs as the fifth seed gave us a chance to prove that.”

The Pipers entered the playoffs as the fifth seed for the second year in the row, and for the second year in a row, they knocked off the fourth-seeded team to advance into the playoff semifinals. They beat Augsburg 4-3 in the quarterfinals last year, and shut out Concordia 3-0 this year.

“Last night was a fantastic win on the road,” said head coach Cory Laylin when asked about the Concordia game. “It was our fourth consecutive road win in the MIAC championship and I’m proud of our guys when they bring their play up to that next level.”

Last year’s playoff experience was extremely important to the Concordia win, according to Hall.

“Winning the conference last year was the highlight so far, it gave many of us invaluable playoff experience for years to come,” he said.

Hamline came into the game against Augsburg with a bad taste in their mouths from their regular season meetings, as Augsburg won both games, first at home 2-8 and then here at Hamline 0-2.

“That first game we lost that game ourselves and was one of our poorest games of the year,” said Laylin. “If we’re going to lose, we’d rather lose outright than lose a tight one.”

Augsburg started off this game quickly, scoring just 3:26 into the first period, with credit for the goal going to junior forward Corbin Chapman. Sophomore forward Will Peterson netted