St. Thomas’ Ryan O’Neill tries to set up a play behind the Lake Superior State net during the first period of a game on Dec. 6 in St. Paul. (Photo by Ryan Stieg)
By Ryan Stieg
ST. PAUL – All good things eventually come to an end, and for the St. Thomas men’s hockey team, that was a six-game points streak.
Since Halloween, the Tommies have gotten at least one point in their CCHA games, and during that span, they also got their record back to the .500 mark. However, Lake Superior State ended that good run with a 5-3 victory Friday night.
The game got off to a terrible start for the Tommies. UST was whistled for holding just over a minute into the game and less than a minute later were handed a delay of game penalty. With a 5-on-3 advantage, the Lakers put two goals on the scoreboard. The first came on a shot from defenseman Johnny Druskinis in the high slot to make it 1-0 at the 2:25 mark and the second goal came on a goal by Branden Piku at 3:47.
“Our details right off the bat weren’t very good,” Tommies head coach Rico Blasi said. “We took a penalty for holding in the offensive zone and then we take another one for a hand play on a faceoff, which you can’t do. That puts us in a 5 on 3 and they get two goals and then we’re chasing the game the entire night. When you’re chasing the game, you’re taking chances and then all of a sudden, they get an opportunity and they score. We’ve got to be better on the details, and we’ve got to stay more engaged in what we’re doing.”
UST wasn’t too rattled though and started to generate some more offense toward the final minutes of the period. After the Lakers were given back-to-back penalties, Tommies forward Lucas Van Vliet continued his hot streak as the two-time CCHA Rookie of the Week fired a one-timer past Lakers goalie Rorke Applebee to cut the deficit to 2-1.
The Tommies tried to carry that momentum into the second period, but they couldn’t capitalize on an early power play. Play was even through most of the period as neither team had some high-quality scoring opportunities. Then, with less than three minutes remaining in the period, UST was burned by another bad penalty. Just five seconds into the power play, LSSU center William Ahlrik scored to make it 3-1 at 17:25.
Down by two goals at the start of the third period, the Tommies got one goal back early in the period on a great individual effort by Jake Braccini. The senior forward skated hard toward the Lakers net and beat Applebee five-hole to trim the LSSU lead to 3-2 at 3:07.
However, things quickly fell apart again for UST. The Lakers went up by two goals again a little over a minute after the Braccini goal on a tally by Calem Mangone and three minutes later, LSSU forward Evan Bushy scored to make it 5-2.
The Tommies cut their deficit to two goals with four seconds remaining thanks to a goal by Nathan Pilling, but it was too little, too late.