After a trying end to 2024, the new year has been kind to St. Thomas.
The Tommies–who were picked by many observers to be one of the main contenders for the CCHA’s MacNaughton Cup this season–never seemed to find their footing in the first half of this season. They went 4-10-4 overall and just 3-6-3 in conference play over the first three months of the season, finding themselves in eighth place in the CCHA standings.
That’s not the start any team hopes for, but the new calendar year is a new opportunity to hit the reset button. It seems like that’s exactly what the Tommies have done. Since a 2-1 loss against St. Cloud State on Dec. 29, St. Thomas has reeled off four consecutive wins–two against non conference Lindenwood, followed by a pair against Ferris State. For head coach Rico Blasi, it’s gratifying to finally see some positive results after the early-seasons struggles.
“Anytime you come up with a couple of sweeps, that’s really important for the feeling in the locker room, the feeling on the ice and in practice. It’s a little bit different. Guys are feeling confident, and we should feel confident. We’re playing really well. Not that we weren’t playing well in the first half, we just weren’t getting results,” Blasi said Monday. “So it kind of weighs on you probably a little bit more than it should. So we’re in a good spot right now.”
The Tommies are now 8-10-4 overall and 5-6-3 in CCHA play, and all of a sudden they have found themselves back in position to make a run for home ice in the CCHA Mason Cup playoffs. The recent home sweep of Ferris State helped the Tommies leapfrog over the Bulldogs into seventh place in the CCHA standings. With a 0.429 points percentage, they’re in striking distance of Bemidji State (.500), Lake Superior State (.524) and Bowling Green (0.619). The Tommies play all three of those teams head-to-head in the coming month.
“We’ve got to continue to stay focused. Like I said on Saturday night after the game, the question was asked, are your guys confident? I said, why wouldn’t you be confident? You’re playing Division I hockey at the highest level. We’re at a great institution. Everybody’s healthy. There’s no reason for our guys not to be confident,” Blasi said. “Just go play every day and have fun and love each other up. The game goes by so fast, especially at this time of the year, when you start thinking about down the road, it’s only seven or eight weeks you’re done. So you’ve got to stay in the moment, you’ve got to enjoy it, and hopefully we play our best hockey at the right time.”
That time seems to be now–especially for the Tommies offense. The biggest key to beating Ferris State last weekend was finding a way to score goals. Boatloads of them. St. Thomas won 9-6 on Friday, setting the program’s record for most goals in a game. On Saturday, some clutch third-period goals by Lucas Whalin and Cooper Gay helped the Tommies rally for a 4-3 victory.
“I think you’ve got to go into every game focusing on the type of game that it is. And sometimes it’s high scoring, sometimes it’s a defensive battle, and so you have to adapt to what the situation provides itself. Sometimes you gotta score some goals, and Friday night was one of those nights, where no lead was safe, and you have to go up and down, and our guys did a nice job of executing and finishing off their chances,” Blasi said. “Saturday night, just a little bit more goal scoring than we would like in terms of our defense, but our guys did a nice job of coming through when they needed to.”
The Tommies also got some clutch goals against Lindenwood–3-2 and 4-3 wins, respectively–and now find themselves as one of the CCHA’s top-scoring offense (2.86 goals per game, just behind Minnesota State’s 2.90). Blasi noted that the Tommies have the CCHA’s top three players in shot attempts (Wahlin, Gay and Liam Malmquist). Those three are also in the top 10 in the league in scoring–Malmquist leads the way with 10 goals and 28 points, Wahlin is third with 10 goals and 22 points and Gay (who leads the league with 11 goals) is ninth in the conference in scoring with 19 points.
“Offensively, I think we’ve had our scoring chances over the course of the season. I think we have three or four of the top players in terms of shot attempts, but we weren’t really hitting the net as much as we wanted to in the first half, but guys seem to be finding it now, so hopefully we can continue that,” Blasi said.
The Tommies’ next two series are against the teams who are directly ahead of them in the standings. This week they travel to Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, to take on Lake Superior State before hosting Bemidji State in Mendota Heights, Minnesota, the following week.
Blasi said he wasn’t thinking too far ahead, however.
“Our message is the same: Make sure we’re getting better each and every day,” Blasi said. “Our process needs to be good. And when our process is not on a daily basis, it’s my job to make sure we come back to what we need to do. You know, everybody’s in the same boat. Everybody wants to play well going down the stretch, and we want to be in meaningful games at the end. The only way to do that is to take it a day at a time.”
