By Ryan Stieg
ST. PAUL, Minn. — It’s been a month since the St. Thomas men’s hockey team played a game and it showed at times during the first two periods against Ferris State.
However, the Tommies rallied in the third to tie the game late and got the game-winning goal from freshman defenseman Hayes Hundley with 41 seconds left in regulation as UST edged the Bulldogs 5-3 to open the second half of the regular season.
“I don’t want to use that (the long winter break) as an excuse,” Tommies head coach Rico Blasi said. “I thought they did a great job of stretching our D out and looking for those stretch passes. They got behind our D a couple times, and our track wasn’t very good. I thought we started to skate a little bit better in the second, and we had some really good chances. But then I thought in the third, we started to actually make some plays with our speed, which was the key.”
In the first period, it was evident that the Tommies were a little rusty. UST struggled to maintain possession in the offensive zone, and it looked as if the communication might’ve been a little out of sync early on.
Ferris struck first at the 14:07 mark on a nice move by Gavin Best. He got a pass from Max Itagaki down by the right post, deked around UST goalie Carsen Musser and tapped the puck into the open net to make it 1-0.
The Tommies had a good chance to tie it late in the period as it drew a cross checking penalty, but midway through the power play, the Tommies committed a tripping call to prevent a shorthanded breakaway. The score remained 1-0 heading into the second period.
“I think, especially coming off a break, there’s going to be some hiccups obviously,” UST captain Lucas Wahlin said. “But you’ve got to find a way to break into those. I think we’ve struggled Friday nights in the first period, so I think that’s kind of something we need to mature and grow at and hopefully in the second half, we can figure that out.”
UST did a better job of controlling the puck in the next period, but it couldn’t cash in on its scoring chances. Meanwhile, the Bulldogs took advantage of their best opportunity in the period as Emerson Goode pushed the lead to 2-0. Goode got a pass from Josh Zary on a rush and beat Musser five-hole at 13:32. Ferris carried that two-goal advantage into the third period.
In the final period, the Tommies finally started to click offensively. At 4:40, Tommies forward Jake Braccini got a pass from Alex Gaffney on a rush and beat Bulldogs goalie Hobie Hedquist blocker-side to cut the deficit to 2-1. Less than three minutes later, the Tommies tied it up at 2-2 as Mason Poolman backhanded a shot past Hedquist by the left post. However, just 26 seconds later, Ferris grabbed the lead again as Best sent a cross-ice pass to Riley Wallack and he beat Musser five-hole to make it 3-2.
“We needed one (goal) for sure to get us going and then we scored right away.” Blasi said. “I give them credit, they (the Bulldogs) came back and scored, but we stayed with it. We felt like we had some good jump there in the third. We were winning battles. Our second effort was a lot better in the third period, which I think was important, and we were making plays.”
In need of a big play, Tommies forward Luc Laylin tied things up again at 15:32 as he beat Hedquist down low to make it 3-3. With less than a minute remaining, Hundley got a pass from Lucas Van Vliet and he skated untouched through the slot before tapping it past Hedquist to give UST its first lead at 4-3. Fellow UST freshman Nathan Pilling then put the finishing touch on the comeback win with an empty netter 25 seconds after Hundley’s tally.
When asked what it said about Hundley for him to step up in a big way as a freshman, Blasi emphasized that after the winter break, the freshman label came off his newest players.
“We don’t have any freshmen anymore, we’ve already played half a year,” he said. “So, these guys know what to expect and how to prepare and how to play. Our D corps was great tonight. When you play a team that plays man-on-man the way Ferris does, they’re very aggressive and you’ve got to get everybody involved. Poolman made a great play, Willy (Nick Williams) made a great play (to set up Laylin’s goal) and then Hayes made a great play. That’s two games in a row for Hayes scoring goals at key moments. It was important for us to get everybody involved.”