By Ryan Stieg
MENDOTA HEIGHTS –Exhibition games are usually seen as a tune-up before the regular season starts and during the first few minutes of Saturday’s game, it looked as if that tune-up was much-needed for the St. Thomas men’s hockey team.
However, the No. 20-ranked Tommies eventually “broke some wrinkles” as they called it, and played a strong third period to take down Manitoba 4-2.
“I didn’t think we were as clean as we needed to be early,” UST head coach Rico Blasi said. “I thought we were cheating the game a little bit too much, just trying to make plays that weren’t there and not taking what the game was giving us. I thought the third period was our best period. We were doing things that we practice.”
UST got off to a shaky start as Manitoba struck first at the 2:31 mark on a goal by Eric Alarie, but the Tommies answered back at the 14:20 mark on a good individual effort by Cooper Gay, who skated in hard and beat Bison goalie Ross Hawryluk.
The momentum didn’t last long though as the Bison got on the board again on a power play goal by Caden Zaplitny a little more than two minutes later, and Manitoba took a 2-1 advantage into the second period.
Things started off better for UST in the second as Carson Peters tied the game at the 1:49 mark. Peters got off a shot from point that slowly slid under Hawryluk’s pad and into the back of the net. Hawryluk was replaced midway through the period by Kolby Thornton.
Neither team could generate much offense after that in the period as they combined for 10 penalties, and it stayed 2-2 going into the third.
In the third, the Tommies started to take control as they outshot the Bison 13-5 and weren’t burdened by penalties. Finally, at the 16:46 mark, Ethan Elias sent a blast to the net that beat Thornton and gave UST its first lead at 3-2. Tommies captain Lucas Wahlin later capped off the win with an empty netter with two seconds left in the game.
“I think it’s tough when it’s an exhibition game,” Wahlin said. “Obviously, you want to get excited for it, but it’s not a Top 20 team like we’re playing tomorrow. You’ve got to treat every game like it’s a big one and get excited for it. We didn’t come out like we wanted to, but tomorrow night will be different.”
The Tommies open the regular season tomorrow against No. 16 St. Cloud State. Puck drop is set for 5 p.m. in Mendota Heights.