By Ryan Stieg
ST. PAUL, Minn. — It took a little longer than they probably wanted it to, but the St. Thomas men’s hockey team finally got its first win at Lee & Penny Anderson Arena.
After blowing leads twice against Providence during the arena’s opening weekend and another lead against rival Minnesota State the following week, the Tommies managed to finish the job Tuesday night and earn a 3-1 win over St. Cloud State. The victory also gave UST its first ever sweep of the Huskies.
“We challenged our team earlier in the day, really all week, just to play with integrity and that means a lot of things,” Tommies head coach Rico Blasi said. “Respect the game, respect your brother, be responsible in your actions, and let’s try to play a 60-minute game. I thought our guys did that really well tonight. It was probably our most complete game of the year in all facets. Our D corps did a good job breaking pucks out, our forwards did a good job of staying connected and supporting the puck, I thought Ingy (goalie Will Ingemann) made some really good saves and he didn’t give them a lot of rebounds. He probably would want that first one back. Our PK did an unbelievable job against a really powerful, I think they were clipping at 34 percent on the power play.
“My assessment is I’m really proud of how the guys played together. The communication on the bench was really good and that’s the first time I’ve noticed that this year even though we’ve won some games and we’ve been involved in some big games. The communication was a lot different tonight and that’s important.”
In adidition to getting a key nonconference victory, the win also helped the Tommies truly feel like the LPAA is their home.
“Well, it’s important obviously, this is our new home,” Blasi said. “We’ve got to start feeling good about it. We’ve been able to practice now here for a little bit. It’s starting to feel more comfortable. We’re starting to understand some of the nuances that the new building has and feel good about it. The guys have been here for almost four weeks, and our routine is down now. It’s not an easy thing to come from a different building and then try to replicate the same routine because there’s different rooms and you have to walk a little bit further, the training room is in a different spot. So, everything is new, but we’re feeling good about it.”
The Huskies were in control for the first few minutes of the opening period, and as a result, they got on the scoreboard first at the 6:38 mark. After Ingemann denied SCSU’s Noah Urness’s shot, Huskies winger Austin Burnevik tapped in the rebound to make it 1-0. That goal was Burnevik’s 11th of the season, which tied him for the national lead.
UST came close to answering later in the period at 10:20, but captain Lucas Wahlin’s shot was just saved by Huskies netminder Patriks Berzins. SCSU killed the penalty, but the Tommies continued to put pressure on Berzins and the Huskies defense. Eventually, UST found the back of the net as Attila Lippai got a pass from Charlie Schoen on a rush and beat Berzins five-hole to tie things up at 1-1. The Tommies held a 16-7 shot advantage going into the second.
Things started to balance out a little more offensively in the first few minutes of the second period as SCSU started to close the gap on the shot chart. However, the Tommies started to pull away again midway through it, and they took the lead at 11:22 on a goal by Alex Gaffney. The Harvard transfer got a pass from Wahlin off a faceoff, skated into the high slot and beat Berzins glove-side for his team-leading seventh goal.
Now leading 2-1, UST struck again three minutes later as Wahlin scored on a breakaway to put the Tommies up 3-1. The goal was Wahlin’s 100th career point and his fifth goal of the season.
The third period was quieter than the previous ones as the Huskies tried to trim their two-goal deficit. SCSU did outshoot the Tommies in the third, but it failed to score on an early power play and then committed a bench minor at 12:07 that took away another power play opportunity. Berzins was pulled for the extra attacker with around three minutes left, but the Huskies couldn’t take advantage of it.
While the Huskies looked tired at times after just coming off a sweep against Minnesota Duluth Saturday, the Tommies looked fresh and relaxed coming off a bye week and Blasi thinks the bye came at the right time.
“I think it was good for us in terms of mentality and mindset,” he said. “We haven’t really had a lot of opportunity to practice because of the schedule. On a Sunday game (against North Dakota), you have to give them Monday off. Then we’re on the road and we didn’t practice much the week against Air Force, and then you’ve got bumps and bruises. So you’re trying to limit their workload.
“So last week was a good opportunity for us to just do some of the simplest things that you can imagine over and over again to the point where the guys were like ‘How long are we doing this thing for?’ But I think it was a really important step for our guys to feel comfortable in those easy little detail, practice through boredom kind of stuff. And we tried to replicate a week the last three days leading up to a game. So, it was more normal practice things that we did the last couple of days, but I think it was an important step for sure.”
UST heads to Augustana Saturday with puck drop scheduled for 6 p.m.