By Ryan Stieg
MENDOTA HEIGHTS, Minn. — Every season they’ve been in Division I, the St. Thomas men’s hockey team has accomplished something new as a program and on Saturday night, it added a new one to the list, the first playoff series win.
After putting up seven goals Friday to win Game 1 against Ferris State, the Tommies got a hat trick from Liam Malmquist and some strong goaltending from Jake Sibell to earn a 4-1 win and a series sweep over the Bulldogs. The victory is UST’s seventh in a row. Malmquist also became UST’s first 40-point scorer and is currently the CCHA’s leader in points with 42 and tied for the lead in goals with 18 along with teammate Cooper Gay.
“I thought the first period was kind of back and forth,” Tommies head coach Rico Blasi said. “Guys were trying to feel each other out a little bit, both teams. We talked a little bit in between the periods about elevating our game a little bit and I thought we did that in the second period. Third period, they pushed and we did a good job of defending. They pushed a little bit too hard and gave us a 2-on-1 and Liam made a great play. I’m really proud of our guys and the way they played all weekend.”
Ferris head coach Bob Daniels liked what he saw from his team during the game and said that Malmquist’s second goal was the one that burned the Bulldogs.
“I thought tonight’s game was a much better game than last night’s game for us,” he said. “I thought the Tommies played good both nights. We made a few adjustments and I have to give a lot of credit to our guys because I felt like we really tried to lock into a few of the changes we made from last night into tonight. Obviously, the third goal, that one really hurt. We were getting ready to pull the goalie (Noah West) and it was like ‘Damn.’ I give our guys credit though. They came back and scored the goal and it was like ‘All right, game back on’ and we were able to get the goalie out. I will say this, I thought the Tommies played very well. They were stingy defensively and to me, it was just a better overall game. I like St. Thomas moving forward, I thought they played very well.”
Unlike the previous night, both teams played solid defense in the first period. In fact, it was similar to the second game they played back in January as turnovers were forced and scoring chances were limited.
Midway through the first period, the Tommies got their best scoring opportunity as the Bulldogs were whistled for interference. However, Jake Braccini’s shot sailed just wide of the net and UST came up empty as Ferris kept the Tommies from getting set in front of the crease. The Bulldogs’ best chance came with a little over seven minutes remaining, but Jack Silich’s shot was denied by Sibell.
“I was seeing the puck well and was just feeling good with it,” Sibell said. “The defense did a great job today of clearing out the front. It just helped a lot being able to see the puck the whole game. It was really fun to be out there and being able to make easy saves because of our guys.”
In the second period, UST got on the scoreboard at the 4:54 mark on a nice shot by defenseman Grant Docter, who got a pass from Matthew Gleason at the right point and blasted a shot past West to make it 1-0. Later, at 12:32, the Tommies struck again. With UST in a tough spot and trying to kill off a penalty, captain Lucas Wahlin collected a loose puck in the neutral zone and went on a rush where he passed it to a streaking Malmquist, who beat West blocker-side to put UST up 2-0.
“Me and Malmquist have great chemistry together and he’s a skilled-enough player to make a play,” Wahlin said. “I gave him the puck early and he had the choice to give it back and he found the back of the net. So, I can’t complain about that.”
Ferris had a great chance to cut into its deficit with a little under four minutes remaining in the period as it mounted a good rush up the ice, but Sibell stretched out with the tip of his blocker to rob Caiden Gault of a sure goal and maintain the shutout.
In desperation mode with under 15 minutes left, the Bulldogs almost got on the board three separate times, but Sibell came up big. He denied two wraparounds and then sprawled across the crease to deny Gault at the right post, barely keeping the puck from crossing the line.
At 15:01, Malmquist picked up his second goal of the night as he broke free up the middle of the ice, got a pass from Wahlin and fired a shot past West to make it 3-0. The Bulldogs did get a goal back at 17:57 on a tally by Gault, but Malmquist finished off his hat trick and the game with an empty netter at 19:35.
When asked what it was like to finally get that playoff series victory, both Sibell and Wahlin had similar thoughts.
“For me, it’s my first playoff win as well, so just to be able to do it in our home barn means a lot more too,” Sibell said. “It just feels like the last month or so has been playoffs, so just to be able to do that and finally have one in the record books is nice.”
“I would definitely agree with every word he just said,” Wahlin added. “That’s kind of the same for me. That was the first playoff series I’ve actually won since high school. It was an unbelievable feeling and the group of guys that we have right now, we’re a completely different team since the (start of the) second half and it’s been so much fun playing with these guys. Hopefully we can keep the streak going.”
With the Tommies eliminating the Bulldogs, Daniels’ time as head coach comes to an end as he heads off into retirement. He’s been the bench boss at Ferris for 33 years and he said that the fact that Saturday was his final game hasn’t sunk in quite yet, but it’ll happen eventually.
“Not really,” he said. “It just feels like the end to another year. I’m sure it will at some point. Maybe next year when I’m in Florida at this time of the year. Then it’ll probably sink in, in a positive way.”
When asked what he will miss most as a coach, Daniels said it’ll be all the people he knows around the game, but there’s definitely something he won’t miss at all.
“What I won’t miss is the bus rides,” he said with a laugh. “I’m just going to be right up front with that. But I’ll miss the people and just the guys I work with and work with right now and all the players. The good news is I’ll be around and I’ll still get my fill of the guys and the alums and so forth.”
Blasi had kind words to say about Daniels and described him as a “special person.” He also said that when a team faced the Bulldogs, they knew they would be in for a battle.
“You always knew you were going to play a team that was well-coached and hard,” Blasi said. “We go back a long way battling in the old CCHA and we’ve had some really good battles. When he was winning in the early 2000s, we were trying to mimic his teams and the way they played and how hard they played. That’s why I say he’s a little bit of a mentor for me and I hired two of his former players as coaches on my staff. So, you can see how much respect I have for him.”