By Ryan Stieg
ST. PAUL, Minn. — All good things come to an end, and for the St. Thomas men’s hockey team, it was their long winning streak.
Heading into Saturday’s game with Michigan Tech, the No. 15-ranked Tommies had rattled off 11 straight victories and hadn’t lost since Dec. 5. However, the No. 19-ranked Huskies took off running early and managed to hang on late in the third period to earn a hard-fought 4-3 victory. UST remains in first place in the CCHA standings, but it is only four points ahead of Augustana and five ahead of the Huskies.
“I think it was a good game and obviously an entertaining game,” UST head coach Rico Blasi said. “They (the Huskies) played really well tonight. They played on their toes, and I think they spent a lot of time in our zone and I didn’t think we spent enough time in their zone. I didn’t think we were committed to doing the little things that we did last night.”
Unlike Friday night where the Tommies took control early, it was the Huskies who came out fast as they put pressure on UST goalie Aaron Trotter. At the 4:54 mark, Tech grabbed its first lead of the weekend as Noah Reinhart scored his second goal of the weekend to make it 1-0.
“Obviously, if you lose Friday night, you’re going to come out a little bit hungrier Saturday night,” Tommies captain Lucas Wahlin said. “I think the hardest thing to do in college hockey is to sweep and we knew it was going to be a battle. I think we came out a little flat and that’s a good team on that side. I think we’ll see them again in the future. I think we need to focus in on our detail because next week is going to be another big one.”
The need to pay attention to detail was mentioned a lot in the postgame presser and when asked for specifics, Tommies defenseman Chase Cheslock said that the Tommies weren’t as connected as they were on Friday.
“Going into games, we have our code and we have our culture and we have our game plan, and I don’t think we were quite on the same page there,” he said. “I think there were some plays that we usually make that we didn’t make tonight. I think there were some plays along the wall where we weren’t on the same page. Guys had some sticks in the air. Pucks weren’t being delivered on time. Timing was off in general. I just don’t think we were mashed up as well as we were last night. Last night, we seemed to click pretty well, and tonight, we just seemed a little bit off.”
The Huskies continued to control the pace until 13:20 when the Tommies got on the board. While on the power play, UST forward Nathan Pilling got a pass from Nick Williams at the left faceoff circle and one-timed it past Huskies goalie Owen Bartoszkiewicz to tie the game at 1-1.
At 17:59, Tech grabbed the lead again on a goal by Jack Anderson. With UST’s Jake Braccini sitting for cross-checking, Anderson blasted a shot from the point past Trotter to make it 2-1 Huskies.
Just 18 seconds later, Braccini made up for his penalty as he beat Bartoszkiewicz five-hole to tie things up at 2-2 heading into the second.
In the second, both teams spent a lot of time in the penalty box. The Huskies managed to kill off two penalties fairly easily, while the Tommies had a much harder task of killing off a major called on Pilling at 12:18. However, Trotter was up to the challenge as he made a nice glove save and then two sprawling saves later on the kill to help UST escape the scenario.
In the third period, Tech took the lead for a third time as Reid Daavettila scored his first goal of the season at 2:17. However, just as they had done twice before, the Tommies had an answer. At 5:54, Alex Gaffney sent a shot on net that appears to bank off Bartoszkiewicz and into the back of the net to tie it at 3-3.
The joy didn’t last long for UST as Tech scored again just 17 seconds later thanks to a goal by Elias Jansson, and the Huskies weathered a late Tommies power play to earn the victory.
“We had our plays, but just for whatever reason, we didn’t execute,” Blasi said. “But I think that was indicative of the game. We were just a step behind tonight and again, credit to Tech. They took it to us and maybe they wore us down a little bit too much tonight. But we had our looks and certainly had an opportunity to tie the game, but it didn’t happen.”
The Tommies will travel to Bowling Green next weekend, while the Huskies host Augustana.