By Ryan Stieg
ST. PAUL, Minn. — To beat a good opponent, hockey teams need to play well for a full 60 minutes. On Friday night, the St. Thomas men’s squad played well for only 55.
Holding a 3-1 lead over No. 18 Augustana with five minutes left in regulation, the No. 15 Tommies gave up two goals to the Vikings with Augie scoring the tying goal with less than a minute remaining. The game went into the books as a 3-3 tie with the Vikings earning the extra CCHA point after winning the shootout. That’s the second tie between the two teams this season with the first game taking place back in November with the Vikings also winning in a shootout.
“We were just too loose,” UST head coach Rico Blasi said. “That’s a good hockey team. I thought it was a good game for 55 minutes and then we lost our focus and they made us play.”
If there was a positive the Tommies could take out of the game, it was that by earning one point, they moved into a tie with Michigan Tech for first place in the league standings. Augie is now one point behind them in second place.
The Vikings came out with a little more jump in the first period and put some early pressure on Tommies goalie Carsen Musser. However, he kept Augie at bay for the first few minutes.
However, Augie got on the scoreboard at the 9:18 mark thanks to a costly UST slashing penalty. With the penalty about to expire, Easton Young blasted a shot from the point past Musser to put the Vikings up 1-0.
UST had some good looks as the period went along and had a golden opportunity with just seconds remaining as captain Lucas Wahlin fed Lucas Van Vliet across the slot, but the freshman couldn’t lift the puck past Vikings goalie Josh Kotai and it stayed 1-0 Augie going into the second.
After both teams couldn’t score on power plays during the first 10 minutes of the second, the Tommies tied things up with a 4 on 4 goal. At 10:05, UST forward Alex Gaffney scored his 17th goal of the season to make it 1-1. Gaffney grabbed a teammate’s mishandled puck in the low slot and beat Kotai down low.
Four minutes later, the Tommies took the lead on a nice goal by defenseman Hayes Hundley. The freshman got a good pass from Gaffney, waited for a second and then fired a shot under Kotai’s arm to make it 2-1 going into the third.
With UST on the power play at 6:07 in the third, Wahlin deflected a shot from Ryan O’Neill past Kotai to make it 3-1. The Tommies maintained that lead until 14:55 when the Vikings cut their deficit to 3-2. Vikings forward Colton Friesen got a pass across the slot from Owen Bohn, and then he beat Musser glove-side.
Later in the game, the Vikings pulled Kotai for the extra attacker and with 43 seconds left, forward Jacob Jastrzebski tapped a loose puck in the crease past Musser to tie the score at 3-3. After a scoreless overtime, Augie prevailed 2-0 in the shootout.
“The 6 on 5 (goal), the puck had a little bit of eyes, but I think we gave them a little bit of that momentum in the last five minutes and when you do that, things have a way to go against you,” Blasi said.