By Ryan Stieg
The second half of the 2024-25 season has officially begun and the St. Thomas men’s hockey team is back home for the first time since late November.
The Tommies split a series at Michigan Tech in early December, but had three weeks off for the holiday break before playing a game at St. Cloud State. After a tough loss to the Huskies, UST bounced back and swept Lindenwood on the road last weekend with captain Lucas Wahlin earning CCHA Forward of the Week honors.
Looking back on the past month, Tommies head coach Rico Blasi was happy with how things have gone with his squad and thinks things are moving in the right direction.
“If I go back to our series at Michigan Tech, I thought we played really well Friday night,” he said Monday. “We didn’t get the result we wanted to. Kind of the same that was happening earlier in the year where we played really well for about 40-45 minutes. We had a couple of key mistakes that they capitalized on. I thought Saturday night we played well again and we were able to score some early goals and play maybe as close to 60 minutes as we’ve played in the first half.
“And then the break came. We had exams and we’re not allowed to play during exams and it just so happened that our week off was right before exams. So, we did a little bit of work on our process in terms of what we needed to clean up. I gave the guys a couple days off and got back after Christmas to prepare for St. Cloud. I thought we played really well against St. Cloud. I thought (Aaron) Trotter played well in net, I thought our D corps did a nice job and I thought our forwards generated some chances. Our power play was looking good. It just came down to a one goal game against a Top 15 ranked team in the country.
“And then our trip to Lindenwood, Friday night, I thought we played pretty good. Lindenwood is a difficult team to play against because they play a very aggressive style. Very hard to prepare for because we don’t play that way. We don’t want to put ourselves in situations where we give up odd man rushes. So, you’ve really got to focus on making the puck do all the work. It took us a little bit of time to get that going, but once we did, we got pretty good chances. Their goaltender played well and we were able to win the game in overtime. Sometimes that’s what you need to do. I thought Saturday night we played really well. I looked up and probably about six minutes left in the first period, they hadn’t had a shot on net and we had about eight or nine. Then they called two penalties against us and kind of gave them a little bit of momentum. I’m really happy with the way we responded. We were playing well and we were down 2-1 with six minutes left and our guys really buckled down and were very opportunistic and stayed within the process and we were able to get the win.”
At this point in the season, teams start to wear down a bit and get hit by the injury bug. The Tommies aren’t any different, but just like last year, they’re trying to battle through it and build on their success last weekend.
“We’re still are battling injuries unfortunately and now there’s some sickness going around our team,” Blasi said. “From what I hear from my colleagues around the country, everybody is dealing with it. Next guy up mentality. We’ve got to play the healthy guys and they have to play and do what they need to do to help the team win.”
This weekend, UST hosts Ferris State, who is struggling this season. The Tommies aren’t going to overlook the Bulldogs, but Blasi said his team’s focus is on themselves rather than their opponent.
“Typical Bob Daniels team,” he said. “They work extremely hard. The CCHA is all the same. You have to play at a high level and compete at a high level and execute at a high level. Otherwise, you’re not going to be successful on the weekend. Our mentality and our process during the week, we don’t change how we approach practice or how we approach our opponents. We respect what they do. At the same time, we’ve got to make sure that we’re ready to go at a high level and that’s what we focus on.”