By Ryan Stieg
ST. PAUL, Minn. — Over its five seasons at the Division I level, the St. Thomas men’s hockey team has had multiple firsts as a program. On Saturday, the Tommies added another one to the list.
Heading into this weekend’s series against Bemidji State, UST had never beaten BSU on a Saturday, but it got the job done this time as the Tommies defeated the Beavers 3-2 to sweep the series and take sole possession of first place in the CCHA. UST has 36 points, one ahead of second place Augustana and two ahead of Michigan Tech.
It was far from a pretty win as the Tommies had 19 total penalty minutes and seemed to be spending a lot of time trying to weather a storm. However, they managed to do so and also showed how good they’ve become on special teams.
“It was one of those nights,” Tommies head coach Rico Blasi said. “We talked about it after the first that we were going to go through some adversity tonight and we’ve got to stay focused. We got ourselves into penalty trouble and they got themselves into penalty trouble. It was just the team that was going to score the goal at the right time. I’m proud of the way our penalty killers handled it. I think (Lucas) Wahlin might’ve played 30 minutes tonight. They’re not always pretty, but you’ve got to find a way to win at this time of the year, and I’m proud of the way the guys played”
For UST forward Nathan Pilling, the win came down to the Tommies being resilient in difficult situations.
“I think that’s a total character win for our team,” he said. “I think we bent for sure, but we ended up not breaking, which speaks a lot to our character and at the end of the day, we’re looking to make a run down the stretch here and that’s another task that we can add to our tool belt moving forward.”
Unlike Friday night, it was the Beavers who struck first. After committing a roughing penalty just 11 seconds into the first period, BSU’s Max Namestnikov made up for his mistake at the 3:13 mark when he scored right off a faceoff to put Bemidji up 1-0.
The action was sort of limited as the first period went on as both teams were frequently sent to the penalty box. UST’s best scoring chance came with just over a minute remaining when captain Lucas Wahlin broke free on a breakaway, but he was taken down and couldn’t get a shot off. Just a few seconds later, the Beavers got their best scoring opportunity of the period as Oliver Peer stole the puck at the BSU blue line and raced up ice, but he was denied by Tommies goalie Aaron Trotter.
In the second period, the Tommies tied things up. With UST on a rush, forward Ryan O’Neill backhanded a pass to Wahlin in the slot, who beat Beavers goalie Max Hildebrand glove side to make it 1-1 at 4:44.
BSU had some chances to take the lead during the final five minutes of the period as the Tommies were whistled for three straight penalties. However, UST manages to kill all three thanks to some big saves from Trotter. During the second penalty kill of that span, Trotter robbed BSU’s Kasper Magnussen by the left post at 16:20 and then made a big save down low on Adam Flammang at 17:01 to keep the score tied at 1-1.
“He (Trotter) did a great job in net, especially after the first one (Beavers goal),” Blasi said. “He’d probably want that one back. What he did tonight, besides making some big saves, was play the puck really well and he alleviated the pressure for our D, which was big.”
UST grabbed its first lead just 1:05 into the third period on a nice shorty by Pilling, and two minutes later, Lucas Van Vliet put the Tommies up by two goals. With UST on the power play, Van Vliet got a pass from Chase Cheslock and fired it past Hildebrand to make it 3-1.
That shorthanded goal was Pilling’s third of the season and put him in a tie with teammate Alex Gaffney for the team lead and in a five-way tie for the national lead. When asked what makes the Tommies so good at scoring shorties, Pilling said it’s their pressure.
“We want to be on the attack and not let them have time and space to make plays,” he said. “When we’re working together like that, we end up getting breaks and I’m happy to throw in and contribute there.”
The Tommies then spent most of the rest of the game in the penalty box and after struggling on the power play the entire weekend, BSU finally got a goal with the man advantage. With Van Vliet sitting for a boarding major, the Beavers’ Reilly Funk got a pass in the slot and snapped it past Trotter to cut the deficit to 3-2. Bemidji pulled Hildebrand for the final two minutes while trying to kill a penalty, but it couldn’t find the equalizer.
“I kind of joked about this with my roommates going into the weekend, playing Bemidji State is like one of those Revolutionary War battles where you all just kind of line up in a field and just shoot at each other and it’s the first one to drop that goes down,” Cheslock said. “That’s the type of bloodbaths that they are. You know you’re going into a war battle, and you know a lot of the game is going to be played on the gray or on the yellow or on the walls. And It’s going to be a gritty win, and it’s the team that doesn’t back down that’s going to come out on top. We kind of expected that and we were looking forward to that and we cherished it. It was a good weekend for us.”