Rolling, Men's Hockey heads into Bowling Green for two with the Falcons

ST. PAUL, MINN – The University of St. Thomas Men's Hockey Team (4-5-1, 2-2-0 CCHA) got back on track with a conference sweep over Northern Michigan and are now set to take on conference opponent Bowling Green (2-6-0, 0-0-0 CCHA) who have yet to play a CCHA contest.

The Tommies and Falcons have matched up eight times in the last two seasons with Bowling Green coming away victorious in six games. The Falcons won each of the first six matchups with St. Thomas, outscoring the Toms 19-9. The last three games of Bowling Green's win streak were decided by one goal (2-1 OT, 3-2, 3-2).

St. Thomas got their first win in the all-time series last January on home ice. The Tommies came away victorious in game one, 4-2, and ended things in a 3-3 tie with BGSU taking the extra CCHA point in a shootout.

Now senior Mack Byers scored two goals in the Purple's first win, including the game winner. Luc Laylin also scored in the winning effort. Aaron Trotter stopped 24 of 26 shots faced in the crease.

Bowling Green Brawls
As previously stated, it has been a bit of a one-sided rivalry between the two sides since the Tommies entrance to the CCHA. The Tommies have gotten just four conference points out of a possible 24.

Bowling Green has thrived at home against the Toms, never loosing and outscoring UST 13-6 in four games. The tides have turned ever-so-slightly, however. St. Thomas had a tie going until the third period in game one at Slater Family and held a lead heading into the third period in game two.

Brady Simmons-Fischer scored his only career goal to take that game-two lead but Bowling Green rallied back with two in the final five minutes of play, including the game-winner from Austen Swankler with 18 seconds left in regulation.

Mack Byers is the Toms' all-time leading point scorer in just four games against Bowling Green. He has a combined four goals and one assist against the Falcons. Four of those points came in January of 2023 in Mendota Heights. Jake Braccini and Ryan O'Neill have each tallied four points against Bowling Green. Aaron Trotter has made four appearances in net to great success. He has amassed a .913 SV%, 2.75 GAA, and 116 saves.

The Tommies will no longer have to deal with two Falcons who had sustained success against them. Nathan Burke scored five goals and added two assists against the Purple, while Austen Swankler scored four goals and four assists. St. Thomas will still have to deal with one of the best goaltenders in the league in net, Christian Stoever. The junior has a career GAA of 2.83 and .909 SV%. Against the Purple he has a 1.98 GAA and .925SV% with one shutout and 147 saves in six games played. The Falcons are 4-1-1 with Stoever in net when playing the Tommies.

Captain of the Ship
Sophomore captain Lucas Wahlin has gotten out to about as good a start as one could wish with 11 points through 10 games. He is currently 14^th in the country with those 11 points and after his season was cut short due to injury a season ago, he is nearly a point-per-game player with 32 points in 36 games to begin his career.

The hard-nosed Woodbury, Minn. native has tallied a point in five of his last six games six of his last eight. Four of those games have been multi-point affairs and the Toms are 3-1 with an overtime loss to Minnesota when Wahlin notches more than one point.

His four-point weekend in the Tommies' sweep of Northern Michigan ended with him receiving the first CCHA Forward of the Week award of his career. He scored two goals, including the shorthanded game-winner in the first game and then added another goal and assisted on Noah Prokop's game-winner in the encore a night later.

St. Thomas' captain is leading the charge with team highs in points (11), goals (6), and shots (42). He ranks third in the conference in goals, eighth in assists, and first in points.

Tommie Tidbits

The Tommies currently sit second in the CCHA standings.
Freshmen Cole Miller and Jase Sofo will be returning to their home state this weekend.
James Marooney, Lucas Wahlin, Ryan O'Neill, Noah Prokop, Quinton Pepper, Mack Byers, and J.D. Metz all have a two-game active point streak.
The Toms have outscored CCHA opponents 12-8 in four games.
32 of the Tommies 78 points have come from sophomores.
Jake Sibell is 4^th in the NCAA in GAA and 3^rd in SV%.
Noah Prokop remains 4^th in the country in faceoffs won.
The Toms are second most disciplined team in the country with just 8.6 penalty minutes per game.

University of St. Thomas Athletics

Rolling, Men's Hockey heads into Bowling Green for two with the Falcons

Players Mentioned

Jake Braccini

Mack Byers

Luc Laylin

James Marooney

J.D. Metz

Cole Miller

Ryan O'Neill

Quinton Pepper

Noah Prokop

Jake Sibell

Jase Sofo

Aaron Trotter

Lucas Wahlin

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