University of St. Thomas Athletics
Minnesota State
Game Notes -- Men's Hockey faces No. 6 Mavericks in CCHA series
11/2/2022 12:56:00 PM | Men's Hockey
St. Paul, Minn. - St. Thomas Men's Hockey (2-6 overall, 1-6 CCHA) will be playing in its second home-and-home series of the season, this weekend against No. 6-ranked Minnesota State (5-3, 2-0). Friday's game is at Saint Thomas Ice Arena in Mendota Heights (7:07 p.m. puck drop), while Saturday's game, in Mankato, will start one hour earlier (6:07 p.m.)
As a first-year D-I program last season, St. Thomas was outscored 36-7 in six losses to then No. 1 or 2-ranked Minnesota State.
The Mavericks, 38-6 and NCAA runner-up last season, moved up two spots to No. 6 in the national poll after it swept Bowling Green last weekend in a hard-fought home CCHA series (3-2 in overtime, 4-2). Minnesota State has a split with the Minnesota Gophers; a sweep of Minnesota Duluth; and two one-goal losses against St. Cloud State.
The Toms are coming off a strong performance in a 5-2 road win on Saturday against Ferris State and a 3-2 OT loss one night earlier to the Bulldogs. Mack Byers scored two goals and Aaron Trotter stopped 34 of 36 shots in Saturday's win.
Follow
Friday's live video can be accessed HERE
The games can be heard live on SkorNorth AM 1500 (HERE via computer):
Friday's games will have live stats that can be accessed HERE:
Did You Know?
- Lucas Wahlin has scored a point in six consecutive games, while fellow freshman Ryan O'Neill, who had three assists last Saturday at Ferris State, has scored in five of his last six contests.
- Last season (36 games), the Toms were outscored by a near 3-to-1 margin, 167-61. This season the Purple have been outscored 27-17 through eight games.
- Four of the Toms' six losses have come vs. top-15 ranked PSU and St. Cloud
- St. Thomas has allowed 3.34 goals a game to rank 41st nationally, up 15 spots from last season's 4.6 gpa allowed.
- Ethan Gauer was named CCHA Defenseman of the Week on Oct. 24 after scoring goals on Thursday and Friday in a series at Penn State.
- 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 Oct. 21 3-2 OT defeat at Penn State and last Friday's 3-2 OT loss at Ferris State dropped the Purple to 1-5-1 in the D-I era in 3-on-3 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 recently at Penn State (61 games at U.Mass-Lowell, 40 for the Tommies).
Poised Performer
Freshman Aaron Trotter ranks in the top 13 nationally among all D-I goalies in most minutes played (425) and in total saves (198 in seven contests).
Quoting Coach Rico Blasi:
"Obviously Saturday was a good night for us... I thought we played our game for most of the weekend, Friday fell a little short in overtime, but happy with our progress that we're making on the ice... You never know in a game how it's going to shake out, that's why we keep trying to instill in our guys that every play matters, everyone matters, every little decision matters..."
"This week it's another opportunity for our team to see where we're at and where we need to go. I think we're up for the challenge, we've played four games already against top 10 opponents...we have to play our game."
Close Calls
Sixteen of the Toms' 44 D-I games have been decided by one or two goals. St. Thomas is 3-7 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 champ 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.
Tommie Talk
St. Thomas went 3-32-1 last season in year one of Division I, but the Purple showed marked improvement over the last half of the season. Their won-loss record included eight losses to teams ranked No. 1 or 2 in the national polls; 13 losses by one- or two-goal margins; and three overtime defeats.
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