By Ryan Stieg
ST. PAUL, Minn. — The weather may have been bitterly cold Friday night, but the St. Thomas men’s hockey team stayed hot on the ice.
After a dominant sweep last week over Lake Superior State, the CCHA-leading Tommies took down second place Michigan Tech 4-1 for their 11th win in a row. UST now leads now-second place Augustana by seven points and the now-third place Huskies by eight.
“First of all, I think that was a pretty good game,” Tommies head coach Rico Blasi said. “Both teams played hard tonight. It was physical, there wasn’t a lot of room out there. You had to do your chinstrap up and be ready to play. We got a bounce in the second period and Vlieter (Lucas Van Vliet) made the most of it. I thought we came out in the third and got another bounce and buried that chance. These are the types of games that we’re going to be in the rest of the year where every play matters, every second matters, everybody on the bench matters. Everybody’s got to play their role and stay within our identity. That’s what we talked about. Just continuing to be who we are and play that identity.”
Unlike most Friday nights this year, the Tommies came out strong and started to generate opportunities in the Huskies zone. UST had two power plays in the period and forced Tech goalie Owen Bartoszkiewicz to make some acrobatic saves to keep the Tommies off the scoreboard. However, the Huskies managed to kill off both penalties and it stayed 0-0 going into the second period. UST outshot Tech 13-7 in the period.
After being stuffed by Bartoszkiewicz in the first period, the Tommies got one past him at the 3:51 mark in the second. With the Tommies working in the Huskies zone, forward Ryan O’Neill sent a cross-ice pass to Alex Gaffney, who then one-timed the puck past Bartoszkiewicz’s glove to make it 1-0.
Gaffney, who seemed to breathe a sigh of relief after scoring, said he’d been working hard on his game, not just in Anderson Arena, but outside as well.
“Something felt a little off in my game the past couple weeks,” he said. “I couldn’t figure out why and I felt that going back out to the outdoor rink and grounding myself again and finding the joy. I was always having fun, but finding the pureness of the game. It just so happens there was a bunch of local kids, and we just played 4 on 4. Just finding that joy and pureness helped my mindset get a different way and led to today.
When asked if his team won that outdoor 4 on 4 game, Gaffney had a good laugh.
“Honestly, I have no idea, but I had a hat trick, so I was happy,” he said.
The Tommies couldn’t celebrate for long as Tech answered back. At 14:19, Noah Reinhart roofed a shot past Tommies netminder Aaron Trotter to tie things up at 1-1. The Huskies got a little boost from the goal as they started to put a little more pressure on Trotter and the UST defense. Trotter finished 20 saves to earn the win in net.
UST grabbed the lead again with just under a minute remaining as Van Vliet skated up ice and blasted a shot under Bartoszkiewicz’s elbow to give the Tommies a 2-1 advantage going into the third.
When asked what he thinks has been the key to the Tommies’ impressive run, Van Vliet listed many factors.
“I think just sticking to detail,” he said. “Now that we’re a team in first place, everyone’s after us. So, we’ve got to kind of take our game to the next level. I think all these past games, we’ve been doing that. Teams are going to hunt us because we’re in first and we take that as fuel and we use it against them. I think we’ve done a good job of sticking to our plan and I think our power play and penalty kill these last couple of games has been clicking. You win a lot on special teams, and I think we’ve been doing a good job of that. So, I think that gives us a lot of momentum.”
Just 34 seconds into the third, UST padded their lead to two goals. After missing his shot, Tommies captain Lucas Wahlin brought the puck around the net and sent a pass across the slot to a waiting Gaffney, who fired it into the back of the net to make it 3-1. Later in the period, the Tommies pushed their lead to 4-1 on a goal by Jake Braccini. After Van Vliet was tripped up, the puck went sliding over to Braccini, and the puck went off his skate and into the net. After a video review, the goal was upheld as there was no distinct kicking motion.
The Huskies did get one goal back with 30 seconds left on a goal by Joe Prouty, but that’s all they could manage. Tech was held to only four shots in the period.