University of St. Thomas Athletics
Friday, March 3
Houghton, Mich.
6:07 p.m. Central
11-22-2
0
at
1
Michigan Tech
23-9-4
1
2
3
F
St. Thomas (MN)
0
0
0
0
Michigan Tech
0
0
1
1
Sixty-minute battle, but Men's Hockey falls short, 1-0
3/3/2023 8:52:00 PM | Men's Hockey
Houghton, Mich. -- Michigan Tech senior goalie Blake Pietila did it again, leaving Tommie Men's Hockey with its back to the wall in the CCHA playoff quarterfinal round.
Pietila stopped all 30 shots and recorded his 10th season shutout and 20th career shutout to lead the No. 11-ranked Huskies in Friday night's 1-0 defeat of St. Thomas.
The Toms need to win Saturday night's rematch to extend the playoff series to a deciding Sunday game in the best-of-3 format. Puck drop is 5:07 p.m. Minnesota time Saturday.
Freshman goalie Aaron Trotter made 31 saves in another strong outing for the Tommies (11-22-2).
A crowd of 2,300-plus saw Brett Thorne score the game's only goal with 8:32 left in regulation time for MTU (23-9-4). The CCHA regular-season runners-up outshot the Toms 32-30.
St. Thomas went 0-for-4 on the power play while Tech went 0-for-3.
Quoting Coach Rico Blasi:
"We made one mistake and they capitalized on it. They made several mistakes, but their goaltender outplayed us tonight. It seemed like every time we had a good chance we hit a post or something. But give (Michigan Tech) credit, they kept coming at us. I thought we handled ourselves pretty well with nine freshmen in the lineup for the first playoff game at this level. We have to rebound and be ready to play (Saturday).
"When you know the All-American is on the other side you have to play equal to the task, I thought (Aaron Trotter) did that tonight. It's playoff hockey, anything can happen. You have to be ready to go. It was a heck of a battle by both teams. The score and the shots were pretty even. I'm proud of the boys the way they played, obviously we didn't get the win, but now we have to come back (Saturday).
"I thought we did a pretty good job all night of keeping them in front of us and protecting our front... most of their shots were from the outside. It was a good hockey game, a playoff-type atmosphere in here. I thought our guys handled themselves well. We have to come back (Saturday) and play the same way, maybe get some more looks at their goaltender and try to get some more traffic in front of him... The effort was good, the execution for the most part was good. We made the one mistake and they capitalized, and we didn't capitalize on their mistakes."
Did You Know?
The Toms dropped to 2-11 this season in games against nationally-ranked teams, although six of the 11 losses were by one- or two-goal margins.
This was just the sixth time in 36 games this season that MTU was held under two goals.
On Friday night, Matthew Jennings played in his 100th career college game, while Jarrett Lee played in his 99th college game.
Pietila stopped all 30 shots and recorded his 10th season shutout and 20th career shutout to lead the No. 11-ranked Huskies in Friday night's 1-0 defeat of St. Thomas.
The Toms need to win Saturday night's rematch to extend the playoff series to a deciding Sunday game in the best-of-3 format. Puck drop is 5:07 p.m. Minnesota time Saturday.
Freshman goalie Aaron Trotter made 31 saves in another strong outing for the Tommies (11-22-2).
A crowd of 2,300-plus saw Brett Thorne score the game's only goal with 8:32 left in regulation time for MTU (23-9-4). The CCHA regular-season runners-up outshot the Toms 32-30.
St. Thomas went 0-for-4 on the power play while Tech went 0-for-3.
Quoting Coach Rico Blasi:
"We made one mistake and they capitalized on it. They made several mistakes, but their goaltender outplayed us tonight. It seemed like every time we had a good chance we hit a post or something. But give (Michigan Tech) credit, they kept coming at us. I thought we handled ourselves pretty well with nine freshmen in the lineup for the first playoff game at this level. We have to rebound and be ready to play (Saturday).
"When you know the All-American is on the other side you have to play equal to the task, I thought (Aaron Trotter) did that tonight. It's playoff hockey, anything can happen. You have to be ready to go. It was a heck of a battle by both teams. The score and the shots were pretty even. I'm proud of the boys the way they played, obviously we didn't get the win, but now we have to come back (Saturday).
"I thought we did a pretty good job all night of keeping them in front of us and protecting our front... most of their shots were from the outside. It was a good hockey game, a playoff-type atmosphere in here. I thought our guys handled themselves well. We have to come back (Saturday) and play the same way, maybe get some more looks at their goaltender and try to get some more traffic in front of him... The effort was good, the execution for the most part was good. We made the one mistake and they capitalized, and we didn't capitalize on their mistakes."
Did You Know?
The Toms dropped to 2-11 this season in games against nationally-ranked teams, although six of the 11 losses were by one- or two-goal margins.
This was just the sixth time in 36 games this season that MTU was held under two goals.
On Friday night, Matthew Jennings played in his 100th career college game, while Jarrett Lee played in his 99th college game.
Team Stats
UST
MTU
Shots
30
32
PPG
0
0
SHG
0
0
Penalties
4
5
Penalty Mins
8
10
Faceoffs Won
22
33
Game Leaders
+/-
0
Goals
0
Sh
5
A
0
+/-
0
Goals
0
Sh
4
A
0
+/-
0
Goals
0
Sh
3
A
0
+/-
0
Goals
0
Sh
3
A
0
Players Mentioned
Press Conference: Rico Blasi January 27th 2025
Monday, January 27
St. Thomas Men's Hockey 2023-24 Intro Video
Friday, October 27
Rico Blasi Pre-Season Press Conference, September 26th, 2022
Friday, October 21
Rico Blasi Press Conference October 3rd
Friday, October 21
