By Ryan Stieg
MENDOTA HEIGHTS, Minn. — On Friday night, the St. Thomas men’s hockey team put together some late magic, scoring back-to-back goals in the third period to both tie the game and then to defeat No. 15 Minnesota State in Mankato.
During the rematch Saturday, the Tommies came close to doing it again as they tied the game with just over a minute remaining to push it into overtime. However, the Mavericks scored just 24 seconds into the extra session as Josh Groll left a drop pass for Rhett Pitlick at the right post that Pitlick wristed into the back of the net to earn a 3-2 victory and the extra CCHA point.
“I thought tonight’s game was really well played on both sides,” Tommies head coach Rico Blasi said. “It was a good hockey game with two good teams going at it. They made a play in overtime, a great play by Josh Groll. When you win the faceoff in overtime, it’s important. But I thought our guys played hard and I’m proud of them. They battled hard. I thought in the third period we were really putting a lot of heat on them and we were able to tie it up with a minute left.”
The Mavericks struck first on their first shot of the game at 5:12 when Luc Wilson tucked a loose puck in the crease past Tommies goalie Aaron Trotter to make it 1-0. Mankato also did a good job defensively in the period as it held the Tommies to just four shots in the first.
UST answered back in the second on a goal by Caige Sterzer, who tipped a Jake Braccini shot past Mavericks goalie Alex Tracy at 10:43 to tie the game at 1-1. However, Mankato took the lead again on a rush four minutes later. Mavs forward Luigi Benincasa skated into the Tommies zone and backhanded a pass over to Kaden Bohlsen, who fired a shot past Trotter to put Mankato up 2-1 going into the third.
In the third, the Tommies increased their pressure Tracy and came close to tying the game a couple times in the early minutes. Later at 3:43, Matthew Gleason hit the pipe and with around nine minutes left, Braccini almost tied the game, but was denied by Tracy.
With under three minutes remaining, Tommies captain Lucas Wahlin put forth a great individual effort, but just missed tucking the puck past Tracy. At 18:16, Trotter was pulled for the extra attacker and the Tommies cashed in as defenseman Chase Foley scored on a wraparound at 18:52 to tie it at 2-2 and force OT.
The Tommies travel to Bowling Green next weekend with puck drop scheduled for 6 p.m. Central both Friday and Saturday night.