By Ryan Stieg
ST. PAUL, Minn. — Heading into Friday’s CCHA Quarterfinal game against Lake Superior State, St. Thomas defenseman Chase Cheslock had gone the entire season without a goal.
However, the New Jersey Devils prospect picked the perfect time to finally get one as he scored the game-winner in overtime to lift the Tommies to a 4-3 victory over the Lakers in Game 1 of their best-of-3 series.
“I was just trying to get it on net,” Cheslock said. “We had bodies at the net, so if I could get one there, I thought we had a good chance of getting something to happen.”
It was an up and down game for the Tommies as they held a 2-0 lead after the first period, but during the second, they gave up three unanswered goals to the Lakers, and UST needed a Ryan O’Neill goal midway through the third to force OT.
“They’ve (the Lakers) always been a solid team and this year, they’re still a solid team,” Tommies captain Lucas Wahlin said. “They beat some really high-quality teams as well and they’ve gave us battles. Every single time we’ve played them, we’ve been in a battle. I think that’s what tomorrow night’s going to be as well. They’re a really good team on the rush and I think if we can slow them down on the rush, we can continue to have success.”
The Tommies got on the scoreboard quickly as senior Jake Braccini scored just 1:12 into the game. Braccini got a pass from Cole Miller, skated near the high slot and beat Lakers goalie Rorke Applebee glove-side to make it 1-0.
At the 11:51 mark, the Tommies struck again on O’Neill’s first goal of the game. After teammate Alex Gaffney’s crashed the net to tap the puck past Applebee, the rebound went to a waiting O’Neill, who snapped it into the open net to make it 2-0.
UST had a good opportunity to pad its lead further after LSSU’s Hadley Hudak was handed a 5-minute boarding major and a game misconduct, but the Lakers easily killed off the long power play to the keep the score 2-0 going into the second.
Then things turned bad for the Tommies. LSSU got one goal back at 6:04 on a goal by Carter Batchelder to cut it to 2-1. While on the power play thanks to a Tommies interference penalty, Batchelder tapped a loose puck through UST goalie Carsen Musser’s legs. Later at 14:04, the Lakers tied things up on a goal by Connor Milburn. While on a rush, Milburn blasted a shot over Musser’s shoulder to make it 2-2. Four minutes later, the Lakers grabbed the lead as John Herrington flipped a rebound over a sprawling Musser that just trickled over the goal line, and LSSU took a 3-2 advantage into the third.
“Obviously on that PK, we had three opportunities to clear the puck, and we didn’t,” Tommies head coach Rico Blasi said. “Usually that’s a recipe for disaster, and it certainly was. The second goal, that’s a highlight reel goal. That kid (Milburn) is pretty good, and he buried it, so there was nothing we could really do on that one. On the third one, it was just them crashing the net. We’ve got to do a better job of identifying and battling in front of the net, but then I thought our guys responded really well in the third period. We were on our toes, and we were playing disciplined and we had our chances.”
In desperate need of a spark, the Tommies got it at 11:50 in the third. After Applebee denied Gaffney to the far post and the Lakers killed off a penalty earlier in the period, O’Neill found the equalizer as he went top shelf to tie the game at 3-3 and force overtime.
“This has been a group that has been really committed to our process, and I think that didn’t change tonight,” Cheslock said. “Going into the third, we had a good recipe for success, and we knew if we went out and executed, good things were going to happen for us. We all came together and bought into our process and that’s what we’ve been doing all year.”