Junior forward Evan Shoemaker had a feeling this season could be special for St. Olaf.
To those on the outside of the program, that didn’t seem possible. Not for a team that played only two games a year ago because of the COVID-19 pandemic and had won a total of four games the year before that. Not to mention there were 12 freshman on the roster.
Internally, though, there was hope and confidence.
“Winning the MIAC was one of our goals going into the season,” Shoemaker said. “It was hard to tell what we were going to do this year, but the expectation was to get to the (MIAC) tournament and see what we could do.”
What the Oles did was win three MIAC tournament games, all on the road, against the top three teams in the conference, capping off a memorable and seemingly improbable run this past Saturday with a 5-2 win over Augsburg, the regular-season MIAC champion and the fourth-ranked team in the nation in the DCU/USCHO NCAA Division III men’s poll.
“It’s still surreal we won, especially as a seven seed,” Shoemaker said. “We just took it game by game, trying to be the best version of our team each time we played,”
That was something second-year head coach Eddie Effinger reminded his team about week in and week out during a regular season that had its share of bright moments, but also featured more than its fair share of challenges.
The Oles (11-14-3) had four wins heading into Christmas and then stumbled into the conference tournament, dropping seven of their last nine. Two of those losses came in overtime.
Through it all, Effinger kept reminding his team of the importance of being the best version of itself when it mattered most. His own college coach during his playing days at Amherst, Jack Arena, always told him the same thing.
“We practiced and preached that all year, and the guys bought into it,” Effinger said. “That helped us when we were struggling, when the score didn’t line up with the effort. It gave us something to grasp and hang onto.”
Shoemaker admits that wasn’t easy. But he never stopped believing.
“It was frustrating because the year as a whole was tough,” Shoemaker said. “We easily could have been a 15-win team or more. We felt like we were the better team a lot of nights, but we didn’t get the bounces.”
Some of that, Shoemaker believes, goes back to the team not having a lot of experience, especially in close games.
Each week, though, was a learning experience, and it all clicked at the right time as the Oles won their first MIAC title since 2006 to clinch an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.
“Once everyone knew their role, we were hard to beat in the (MIAC) playoffs,” Shoemaker said. “We turned the ship around and wanted to prove a lot of people wrong, We had a lot of ups and downs, but it all came together.”
It started in the offseason. Effinger and his coaching staff helped lay a foundation for the team to connect. The players did a lot of team bonding, something that wasn’t there the previous season because of the pandemic.
“It didn’t feel like it was really back to normal in the locker room until around Christmas,” Effinger said. “At times, it seemed like the guys didn’t know each. They didn’t have those friendships that happen organically But we got there.”
The team was clicking at its best in the MIAC tourney. The Oles beat third-seeded Concordia 3-2 and knocked off second-seeded Saint John’s 3-1 four days later in the semifinal round. They then faced the Auggies, owners of a 16-game home winning streak, for the title.
Effinger said keeping things simple was the key to success.
“You have to simplify everything, especially with us having a young team,” Effinger said. “I felt we had enough talent to score goals. The big issue was keeping the puck out of the net. We worked a lot on defense, focusing on our defensive zone structure, telling the guys to play fast and simple with the puck. If we were going to make mistakes, we were going to make them going fast.”
St. Norbert presents a new challenge. The Green Knights (23-6) are ranked sixth in the nation and have a tradition of success, winning five national titles, the last in 2018.
St. Olaf will face off against them Saturday in the opening round of the tournament. Effinger said the experience his team has gained so far playing in the postseason has been beyond valuable. And win or lose, this is another golden opportunity for the Oles.
“I’m so proud of our guys, but we have to put the MIAC behind us, put away that trophy, and focus on taking advantage of the next opportunity,” Effinger said. “No one says you are going to get back here. Don’t just be happy to be playing here with the NCAA banner in the background.”
For someone like Shoemaker, this tourney run has been a dream come true, and the chance to play in the NCAA tournament is something is something he savors a great deal considering how tough things have been at times since he’s been at St. Olaf.
“We’ve had a lot of ups and downs, but I came here because I felt everything was in place to have competitive hockey program,” Shoemaker said. “I wanted to be part of the change, and to see it come to fruition, and what we can have in the future, too, it’s exciting. This is a rewarding feeling knowing how much we’ve put into this season.”
