By Ryan Stieg
ST. PAUL, Minn. — Sometimes, it’s the little things that can be the difference between a win and a loss, and the team that does those things usually ends up with a victory.
That wasn’t the case for the St. Thomas men’s hockey team on Friday night as it fell to No. 8/7 North Dakota 2-0 on Friday night. Fighting Hawks goalie Jan Spunar made 19 saves to earn his seventh career shutout. It’s also the third game in a row where UND held an opponent to less than 20 shots on goal, and the Tommies looked bottled up for most of the game.
“That’s their game, right?” UST head coach Rico Blasi said. “They’re a puck possession team and they’ve got good speed. I thought our work habits were pretty good. I didn’t like our details of the game. They’re a good hockey team. When they get a chance, they’re going to bury it. We were right there. We were standing right next to the guy, and we don’t pick up his stick. They’re hungry to score, and we weren’t hungry enough to defend on that.”
The Fighting Hawks struck first early on a goal by Will Zellers. The sophomore winger gathered a deflected puck in the low slot and fired it past UST goalie Will Ingemann to put UND up 1-0 at the 2:04 mark. Ethan MacKenzie and Cooper Simpson picked up the assists.
At the other end of the ice, the Tommies were getting stifled offensively. They only managed four shots in the first period and even with a power play, they couldn’t generate any quality opportunities. The good thing for UST was that Ingemann kept the Hawks at bay for the rest of the period, and it was 1-0 UND going into the second period.
UND continued to control play in the second period, but it couldn’t pad its lead. The Tommies killed off an early penalty and Ingemann made back-to-back saves with less than 10 minutes left to keep UST’s deficit to one. Ingemann also made a flashy glove save through traffic with 8:59 left to keep it 1-0. He finished with 29 saves.
“Will did whatever he had to do to keep us in it,” Blasi said. “Their guy (Jan Spunar) made some big saves too. A couple breakaways, three breakaways that I can count. (Mason) Poolman, (Attila) Lippai and (David) Rozsival. In a game like that, you’ve got to score to get some momentum and get them on their heels a little bit, but we weren’t able to do that.”
The Tommies didn’t have many scoring chances in the second period, but there were two good ones. With under eight minutes left, Lucas Van Vliet skated around the UND net and fed the puck to a waiting Lippai, but Lippai’s one-timer was denied by Spunar. With 2:37 left, Rozsival also had a good scoring opportunity down low, but Spunar made a sliding save to keep the puck out, and it was still 1-0 Hawks going into the third.
In the third period, UST finally started to generate some consistent offense and its best scoring chance of the game happened just over two minutes in. After Spunar saved a shot from Van Vliet, he was caught outside the net. Kaeden Hawkins collected the loose puck and passed it back to Justin Kipkie at the point, but Kipkie’s shot toward the wide-open net was blocked in front by Brasen Boser and the golden opportunity was missed.
A little over a minute later, UND’s Anthony Menghini roofed a shot past Ingemann to put the Hawks up 2-0 at the 3:51 mark. Ollie Josephson and Mac Swanson got the assists.
UST continued to generate offense as the period went on, but it just couldn’t get on the scoreboard. The Tommies last good scoring chance came with just over eight minutes remaining when Quinn Rudrud sent a cross-ice pass to Jakub Altrichter on a rush, but Altrichter’s one-timer was nabbed by Spunar.
When asked what the Tommies need to do to force a split with UND, Blasi said it comes down to details and making plays.
“First and foremost, our work habits have to be the same,” he said. “The effort needs to be equal to what we did tonight, if not better. And we’ve got to pay attention to detail. The little details of the game, they’ll kill you in this conference. It’s the difference and I’m not just talking about stick detail. I’m talking about making plays. You’ve got to make plays that are there and we were there. We just didn’t make them and they’ve got good sticks. And they reload really well because they can skate, and you’ve got to make that next play. You’ve got to be ready to make that next play. And then if there’s another play that needs to be made, then you’ve got to be ready to make that play. We’ve got to regroup. We’ll watch some video tonight and tomorrow morning and put together, I’m not sure if it’s going to be a different game plan, but we’ll meet in the morning and get after it again tomorrow.”