Defense fuels No. 15-ranked Tech in 2-0 road win over Men's Hockey

Mendota Heights, Minn. -- No. 15-ranked Michigan Tech is a team known for its defense, and that trait was present Saturday night in the Huskies' 2-0 defeat of host St. Thomas before a lively crowd of 790 at Saint Thomas Ice Arena.

Tech (16-8-1 overall, 13-5-1 CCHA) ran its unbeaten streak to seven (6-0-1) and rebounded from a 3-3 tie with the Tommies one night earlier. Reigning CCHA Goalie of the Month Blake Pietila stopped all 13 shots he faced as Tech outshot the Purple 19-1 in period two and 36-13 on the match. Tech came into Saturday ranked fourth in Division I hockey is fewest goals allowed at 1.88, and they have four shutouts in their last nine contests.

Peter Thome had 34 saves for the Toms after contributing 32 saves in Friday's contest. St. Thomas (2-25-1, 2-19-1) was shutout in four of its first 14 games this season, but Saturday was the first time they were blanked in their last 14 games.

Tommie coach Rico Blasi said after Friday's 3-3 tie result, a hungry Michigan Tech team showed up for the rematch on a mission.

"We didn't execute tonight," Blasi said. "The puck was bobbled, we hit a crossbar. Their goaltender made a couple of big saves, especially on the power play. We made a big-time tip, he got a pad on it. It was one of those nights where we needed execute early, and we certainly didn't do that. The effort was there. We kept them to the outside for the most part. We didn't let them penetrate too many teams, and the couple of times they did they scored. I'm happy with the effort, we're getting better. I know it doesn't show it with our wins and losses.

"The No. 15 (ranked) team in the country showed up. They were hungry. They were playing for an NCAA berth, playing for second place in our conference. Those are the things we have to learn as a program, this is part of the growth and maturity. The hardest thing to do in college hockey is sweep. You have to come and play every night, because everybody is going to give you their best. When teams are desperate and play with a sense of urgency, with something on the line, that's what you get. Our guys matched their intensity. It's a learning process. When you play a team like Tech that has a lot on the line, they were mad. We knew they were going to be mad. It was a good hockey game.

St. Thomas plays two at next weekend at Alaska-Fairbanks in their final non-conference games of the season, preceded by a long plane ride.

"It's a short week for us, we have to get ready," Blasi said. "We leave Wednesday, it's a long trip Wednesday night, then we get in (at Fairbanks) at 1:00 in the morning so we have to take Thursday to kind of get acclimated a little bit to the time zone and get ready to play against a good Alaska team that's really old and experienced. Nothing new for the Tommies. This is the time of year when everybody wants to play. If you're not excited about playing at this time of the year, you have the wrong guys in the locker room. Our guys will be ready."

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Team Stats

Tim Piechowski

Kimball Johnson

Grant Loven

Trevor LeDonne

Players Mentioned

Peter Thome