University of St. Thomas Athletics
Ferris State
Game Notes - Men's Hockey on road for CCHA openers in Michigan
10/26/2022 3:15:00 PM | Men's Hockey
St. Paul, Minn. - St. Thomas Men's Hockey (1-5) takes to the road for an Oct. 28-29 series against Ferris State (2-3-1). The Friday game has a 6 p.m. Minnesota-time puck drop, while the Saturday game will start one hour earlier at 5 p.m.
St. Thomas and Ferris split two 2021-22 series -- UST scored 11 goals and allowed 10 over the four games, but Ferris outshot the Toms in both -- on home ice by 75-28, and at STA rink by 57-53.
Ferris State Hockey has a more experienced defensive group with seven of its nine defenseman being juniors or seniors. Their forwards are more balanced age wise having nine freshman/sophomores and eight juniors/seniors.
The Toms are coming off a solid performance in a 3-2 road overtime loss to undefeated and No. 18-ranked Penn State. Ryan O'Neill and Ethan Gauer scored goals last Friday for St. Thomas, which was outshot by Penn State by a 33-29 margin. The Toms lost 6-2 to PSU on Thursday in the series opener.
The series pits two of the winningest coaches in D-I men's hockey, both members of the 400-Win Club: UST's Rico Blasi (402 wins in 22 seasons) against FSU's Bob Daniels (475 wins in 29 seasons). Blasi ranks No. 8 among current D-I coaches for career wins, Daniels ranks No. 5.
Follow
Friday's live video can be accessed HERE
The games can be heard live on SkorNorth AM 1500 (HERE via computer):
The games will have live stats that can be accessed HERE:
Did You Know?
- Four of the Toms' five losses have come vs. top-20 ranked PSU and St. Cloud
- St. Thomas has allowed 3.7 goals a game to rank 41st nationally, up 15 spots from last season's 4.6 gpa allowed.
- Last week marked the first St. Thomas athletics trip in any sport to Penn State.
- Ethan Gauer was named CCHA Defenseman of the Week on Oct. 24 after scoring goals on Thursday and Friday against the Nittany Lions
- The Oct. 8 win was the Toms' first of the D-I era when trailing after two periods, ending an 0-29 string. Twice last season the Toms rallied after a 40:00 deficit to force overtime but were unable to complete the comeback with a win.
- The Oct. 8 win also was first overtime victory of the Division I era. The 3-2 OT loss at Penn State dropped the Purple to 1-4-1 in the D-I era in overtime results.
- There were 20 NHL scouts and a few Minnesota Wild players in attendance for the Oct. 14 exhibition game with the USNTDP squad. The capacity crowd of 950-plus was UST's second STA rink sellout of the season, a program first.
- Grad student Nolan Sawchuk played his 100th game in D-I hockey last weekend at Penn State (61 games at U.Mass-Lowell, 39 for the Tommies).
Poised Performer
Freshman Aaron Trotter ranks in the top 17 nationally among all D-I goalies in most minutes played and in total saves with 145 in five contests.
Quoting Coach Rico Blasi (after OT loss at Penn State Oct. 21)
"We went toe to toe with one of the best teams in the country, and now we have to get better and put this one behind us... We had our chances... we went one shift after another, and we did a lot of good things.... it's a hard pill to swallow tonight, I thought we deserved better... but we have to move on and get better."
Close Calls
Fifteen of the Toms' 42 D-I games have been decided by one or two goals. St. Thomas is 3-6 in one-goal decisions, and 0-9 in games decided by two goals.
Poll Talk
St. Thomas was again projected to finish eighth in the CCHA preseason poll, as picked by the league's head coaches. Last year's champion and NCAA runner-up Minnesota State took first (six of eight first-place votes). Northern Michigan (two first-place votes) and Bowling Green took the 2-3 spots.
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