St. Thomas is in a good position to repeat as regular-season champs in 2006-07, despite losing three of its top five scorers. Gone are forwards Brandon Wilcox (12-26-38) and Dan Krmpotich (12-23-35) and defenseman John Bottoms (6-15-21). Bottoms may be the biggest loss for the Tommies as coach Terry Skrypek said he played probably two-thirds of every game for sure, leading both the power play and penalty kill units and held everything together.
“Bottoms was the integral part of the whole team,” Skrypek said. “He was kind of the glue that held everything together and probably did the most for us on the ice … We’re going to greatly miss him.”
Skrypek said he feels his four lines are balanced and will be able skate with any four lines in the rest of the MIAC. With senior forwards Nick Harris (13-25-38) and Kevin Rollwagen (13-13-26) it certainly looks like it.
St. Thomas has a significant advantage over many of its conference foes as the Tommies return a solid goaltender in senior Treye Kettwick. Kettwick went 12-5-1 last season with a 2.76 GAA and .897 save percentage. But just because Kettwick is back, doesn’t mean St. Thomas won’t have a goaltending battle of its own.
“He was very inconsistent last year as a goaltender and he knows that,” Skrypek said. “The playoffs were an example of that.”
Joining Kettwick between the pipes this season will be sophomores Cameron Voss, who transferred from Hamline) and Jake Maida and freshman Joe Schraeder who Skrypek said is the future of St. Thomas hockey.
