By Ryan Stieg
Year 4 of the St. Thomas’ Division I experience has arrived and that arrival comes with high expectations.
The No. 20 Tommies are ranked for the first time during their short time in DI and were predicted to win the CCHA in the Preseason CCHA Coaches and Media Polls. UST captain Lucas Wahlin was also picked CCHA Preseason Player of the Year in the Media Poll, so people are clearly thinking big things for the Tommies.
There may be a lot of hype surrounding the Tommies, but UST head coach Rico Blasi said he doesn’t want his team to focus on that and instead to “mind the gap,” which joins the program’s growing list of slogans.
“I talked to the team a couple weeks ago, if you’ve never been to London, England, and you get a chance to take the subway, over the loudspeaker, the announcer says “mind the gap” because they don’t want their passengers to fall between the platform and the subway train,” Blasi said Monday. “So, we need to mind the gap. Forget about what social media is saying, forget about what the polls are saying. We’ve got to do our job. Don’t fall into the trap. Stay grounded in who we are and our culture and our identity. Make sure that we’re grateful for every day that we’re out there together, love each other up, love the process and we’ll see where it takes us.”
UST opens its slate Saturday afternoon with an exhibition game against Manitoba before starting the regular season against No. 16 St. Cloud State Sunday. It’s uncommon for a team to play an exhibition and a regular season opener back-to-back, but it should give the coaches a good chance to see where the team is currently at, which is something Blasi said they’re already analyzing.
“I would say that we’re constantly evaluating players,” he said. “We have a group right now that I think will make it very difficult for us to pick a lineup each and every week. So, our job as coaches is to make sure that we’re watching what little things are transpiring in practice, how guys react to certain situations and certain drills. I think the evaluation process is a daily occurrence for our staff.”
Looking ahead to the Huskies, they’re strong as always. SCSU just missed making the NCAA Tournament last year and look primed to get back there after anchoring their defensive corps with CCHA Second Teamer Josh Zinger as a transfer from Northern Michigan. The Tommies split with Huskies to open last season, defeating the Huskies in overtime in St. Cloud.
Blasi said that he likes his team from what he’s seen so far and said that they just need to stick to being who they are as the season goes on.
“I’ve been at this now, for almost 30 years at the college level and you’re always going to have to navigate something early, in between, and late,” he said. “So hopefully we can stay grounded in who we are and our culture and make sure that we’re doing the things that we need to do on and off the ice within our culture and our identity. And if we do that, we’re going to be in a good shape.”
Puck drop is set for 1 p.m. Saturday for the exhibition and 5 p.m. Sunday for the season opener.