By Ryan Stieg
MENDOTA HEIGHTS, Minn. — Heading into winter holiday break, it appeared as if home ice in the CCHA Tournament might be an unachievable goal for the St. Thomas men’s hockey team.
However, the Tommies caught fire in 2025 and now, they’re heading into the playoffs with momentum after a 2-1 win over Michigan Tech Saturday, which completed a series sweep and clinched home ice in the first round. UST is the No. 3 seed and will host No. 6 seed Ferris State in a best-of-3 series next weekend.
“Really for the last six weeks, we’ve had the mentality that this is a playoff weekend,” Tommies forward Matthew Gleason said. “Every weekend is a playoff weekend because it’s going to show what we can do at the end if we get home ice. So, every point we got, we needed, and going on that little heater toward the end when we were winning games every weekend, it really showed that we want to be here. We want to play in front of our fans and be at home.”
However, it wasn’t easy to get home ice as for the second straight night, the Huskies made another late push in the third period that the Tommies had to weather again to achieve that preseason goal.
“Just like any weekend in our conference, it’s going to be a grind and it was tonight,” Tommies head coach Rico Blasi said. “I thought it was a good college hockey game, back and forth. I’m really proud of the way our players played and the way they competed tonight with our second effort. Penalty killers did a great job, the power play came through when they needed to, and Sibes (UST goalie Jake Sibell) was fantastic. A really good team effort and now the new season starts on Monday.”
Just like Friday night, the Tommies put pressure on Huskies goalie Ryan Manzella early in the first period. Unlike the previous game though, they weren’t able to get on the scoreboard. However, they did have some quality scoring chances, especially on a power play around seven minutes into the period. Liam Malmquist just missed the back of the net and both Cooper Gay and Casy Laylin had good looks, but were denied by Manzella.
At the other end, the Tommies did a good job cutting down Tech’s scoring chances and killed off a Caige Sterzer penalty with ease making it for a fairly easy period for Sibell. The two teams skated into the period break tied 0-0.
UST started the second period on the power play as a Huskies bench minor for too many men carried over from the final minute of the first period, and the Tommies took advantage of it as Cooper Gay got them on the board. With the power play coming to a close, UST forward Ryan O’Neill sent a shot on net that was saved by Manzella, but the rebound went right to Gay and he backhanded it into the open net at 0:58 to make it 1-0.
That was the last quality scoring chance for the Tommies as they spent a good chunk of the period on the penalty kill. UST got through three Tech power plays thanks to some blocked shots and a couple nice saves from Sibell. The senior netminder also came up big in the final two minutes as he made key stops on Stiven Sardarian and Marcus Pederson to maintain the Tommies’ slim 1-0 lead.
“We had a lot of guys sell out this game,” Tommies captain Lucas Wahlin said. “Shout out to Carson Peters, our penalty kill was unbelievable. Our D corps was unbelievable. A lot of forwards blocking shots that you don’t always see. It’s getting toward the end of the year and you’ve got to win hockey games. People are doing what they’ve got to do and they’re knowing their role and you’ve got to battle to win a hockey game.”
Needing a spark, the Huskies got one early in the third as Jack Works collected a loose puck behind the net and tucked it inside the left post to tie the game at 1-1 at the 1:23 mark.
However, the Tommies answered back at 7:11 on a great goal by Wahlin, who skated into the Tech zone and backhanded a shot past Manzella’s blocker to give the Tommies a 2-1 advantage. A little over a minute later, UST almost struck again as Sterzer sent a pass from the right post into the slot for Laylin, but his shot was denied by Manzella.
Tech pulled Manzella with under four minutes left and the Huskies had several good opportunities, but Sibell stood tall and stuffed both Chase Pietila and Logan Morrell in the closing seconds to close out the victory.