{"id":138366,"date":"2023-01-25T06:00:14","date_gmt":"2023-01-25T12:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/?p=138366"},"modified":"2023-01-25T05:54:27","modified_gmt":"2023-01-25T11:54:27","slug":"this-week-in-ccha-hockey-much-improved-st-thomas-squad-looking-to-move-up-standings-as-tommies-not-just-close-were-in-every-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/2023\/01\/25\/this-week-in-ccha-hockey-much-improved-st-thomas-squad-looking-to-move-up-standings-as-tommies-not-just-close-were-in-every-game\/","title":{"rendered":"This Week in CCHA Hockey: Much-improved St. Thomas squad looking to move up standings as Tommies ‘not just close, we\u2019re in every game’"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Trevor LeDonne (25) and Aaron Trotter (31) have been key components to St. Thomas’ success this season (photo: St. Thomas Athletics).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

What a whirlwind of a week it was for St. Thomas and its men\u2019s hockey program.<\/p>\n

On Jan. 14, the Tommies earned their first-ever victory against a ranked team in the Division I era when they beat Michigan Tech 3-2 in Houghton, Mich., to earn a road split \u2013 one of the toughest arenas to play in and win as a road team.<\/p>\n

Three days later, the entire team was back in St. Paul to be in attendance for a program-changing announcement. Plans for the Lee and Penny Anderson Arena \u2013 which will be St. Thomas\u2019 brand-new, on-campus, multipurpose home ice rink \u2013 were unveiled on Jan. 17<\/a>. The arena, which is estimated to cost around $131 million, has a target opening of fall 2025.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a \u2018wow\u2019 moment for everybody,\u201d St. Thomas coach Rico Blasi said during his weekly media session on Monday. He said he managed to keep it a secret until the actual reveal, although a few players did figure it out.<\/p>\n

\u201cA couple guys came up and asked me, \u2018Is this the big announcement?\u2019 and I said, \u2018I don\u2019t know what you\u2019re talking about,\u2019\u201d Blasi recounted with a smile. \u201cBut I could see them when the announcement was happening, and I think you could tell there was a sense of pride with everybody about what we\u2019re building. They get to build it on the ice as well, which is important. This is going to be an important piece for our program. Some of those guys won\u2019t play in it, but I can tell you they\u2019re just as excited and proud to be part of St. Thomas, and that’s an important piece.\u201d<\/p>\n

To cap off all that excitement, the Tommies then hosted league leaders Bowling Green a few days later at their current home rink in suburban Mendota Heights. Buoyed perhaps by both momentum and excitement, St. Thomas took four of six points from the Falcons.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a week we won\u2019t forget,\u201d Blasi said. \u201cIt was exciting for our program, exciting for our alums, our community, our fans, athletics at St. Thomas. To have good games following that up was important. I thought we played some pretty good, spirited hockey with good energy against a really good Bowling Green team.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Tommies beat the Falcons 4-2 in Thursday\u2019s game before rallying on Friday to earn a 3-3 tie and a hard-fought point in a shootout loss. At three games unbeaten, it\u2019s St. Thomas\u2019 longest unbeaten streak in the Division I era.<\/p>\n

That might not seem like much, but consider that the Tommies (7-15-2, 6-10-2 CCHA), with 17 newcomers on the roster, were again predicted to finish last in the CCHA at the start of the season.<\/p>\n

For the first two months of the year, it even looked like that prediction would hold up. There was a point in mid-November when the Tommies were 2-12-0 and in the midst of a six-game losing streak, with consecutive sweeps at the hands of Minnesota State, Bowling Green and Michigan Tech. Since then, it\u2019s been quite the turnaround: St. Thomas is 5-3-2 \u2013 all against conference opponents \u2013 and has taken points from every single series.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s been a little bit of everything — the growth of our program, the confidence levels, the fact that we were in a lot of games,\u201d Blasi said when asked what the difference s between how the Tommies played early in the season during that losing streak and how the Tommies are playing now. He pointed out what he called a \u201cstupid stat,\u201d namely that 18 of St. Thomas\u2019 24 games have been decided by two goals or less.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not just close, we\u2019re in every game,\u201d he said. \u201cI think it was a matter of learning how to play in those close games and then finishing them off and not get rattled if things happen we weren\u2019t accustomed to.\u201d<\/p>\n

It also helps to have those newcomers start to gel as an offensive unit. Northern Michigan transfer Mack Byers (13 goals) and freshman Josh Eernisse (12 goals) are both in the top 10 for goalscoring in the conference while Byers and freshmen Ryan O\u2019Neill and Lucas Wahlin all have 17 points and counting \u2013 already a Division I record.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo get those guys acclimated to how we want to play, to our identity, had taken some time,\u201d Blasi said. \u201cWe\u2019ve been really pleased with the effort, the focus and the mindset to this point.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t compare last year’s team and this year’s team; I like to compare our team from the beginning of the year to where we are today. The mentality, the mindset is way different. We\u2019ve grown a little bit. If you go back to some of the early interviews that we had back in September and October, our goal was to play good hockey come January and February.\u201d<\/p>\n

It seems like that goal has been achieved. The Tommies are currently tied with Northern Michigan for sixth in the league standings, although the Wildcats would be ahead of them with the tiebreaker. They will travel to Arizona State this weekend to play their last nonconference series of the season.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got to go and play. We have to continue to get better,\u201d Blasi said. \u201cThere\u2019s lots of room for improvement on our team, and then when we get back into league play, hopefully we\u2019re playing well.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What a whirlwind of a week it was for St. Thomas and its men\u2019s hockey program. On Jan. 14, the Tommies earned their first-ever victory against a ranked team in the Division I era when they beat Michigan Tech 3-2 in Houghton, Mich., to earn a road split \u2013 one of the toughest arenas to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":98,"featured_media":138367,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[812],"coauthors":[854],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThis Week in CCHA Hockey: Much-improved St. Thomas squad looking to move up standings as Tommies 'not just close, we\u2019re in every game' - College Hockey | USCHO.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"What a whirlwind of a week it was for St. Thomas and its men\u2019s hockey program. 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