Impressive comeback, but Men's Hockey goes unrewarded

Mendota Heights, Minn. -- St. Thomas Men's Hockey recorded its best comeback of the season Saturday night, in a home conference battle with Michigan Tech.

But there was no reward at night's end for the Tommies' effort and execution

The Purple came back from a three-goal deficit to tie the score, but allowed a late short-handed goal on a breakaway and lost 4-3 to Michigan Tech.

The Huskies closed out a weekend road sweep and continued St. Thomas' frustrating run of close losses.

Coach Rico Blasi's Toms have eight defeats by one- or two-goal margins. They also have six defeats to teams ranked in the trop 10 of this week's the USCHO top 20 poll, plus two other losses to Michigan Tech, which is receiving votes in the poll.

St. Thomas (2-12-0 overall, 1-7-0 CCHA) fell behind 3-0 in the game's first 11 minutes after three MTU goals in a 4:00 span.

The Tommies countered with two goals in just 23 seconds during a 5:00 major penalty, as Luke Manning and Luc Laylin found the back of the net later in the period to cut the deficit to 3-2.

After a scoreless second period, St. Thomas' Tim Piechowski tied the game with 7:27 elapsed in period three.

The Tommies went on a power play with 3:18 left, but MTU took advantage of a free puck at the top of the zone and executed a short-handed breakaway goal with 2:07 to go for what proved to be the game winner.

Ethan Roberts started in goal and left the game with an injury late in period one. Aaron Trotter played the final 46:02 and stopped 17 of 18 shots for the Purple.

MIchigan Tech (8-3-2, 4-2-2) outshot the Tommies 29-18 in the net and helped kill off all four MTU power plays.

Piechowski said the Tommies will be ready to get back to work Monday in practice and find a way to turn around the recent close losses.

"I think our team's very close," Piechowski said. "I think everyone here wants to be here and everyone knows they are here for a reason. We all want to win, and we all want to compete as hard as possible. I think if we figure out a way to do it for a full 60 (minutes), it's going to make this team even closer than it already is."

Next Up

St. Thomas plays two more CCHA games next weekend on home ice vs. Lake Superior State (Friday 7:07 p.m., Saturday 6:07 p.m.). The Lakers were idle this weekend and bring a 1-7-2 record into next weekend.

Did You Know?

Manning scored for the second night in a row. Manning scored goals in five of his last seven games last season, and now has contributed four goals in his last seven games this season.
Piechowski scored his first goal of the season.

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Team Stats

Tim Piechowski

Luke Manning

Luc Laylin

Trevor Zins

Players Mentioned

Luc Laylin

Luke Manning

Tim Piechowski

Ethan Roberts

Aaron Trotter