This past weekend we had a two-game series against rival St. Thomas. Friday night at home we lost 4-2 and Saturday night on the road we won 4-0. Both games had their own storylines, but a similar one came out again in that one team finished their chances one night and the other finished their chances the other.
The first game was at the National Hockey Center in front of our best crowd of the year. We came out in that game buzzing and we had about 10 great chances in the first 10 minutes of the game. Unfortunately, we were not able to finish any of those chances and finished the first period 0-0. With that said, all the momentum that we had in the period went away when we took a penalty and gave up a lot of great chances to their power play. From that point on in the game, St. Thomas carried the play and ended up scoring 3 goals in the second period and another in the third to take a 4-0 lead. We were able to claw back a bit late with goals from senior Kyle Wagner and freshman Auggie Moore. We made a game of it in the end, but just couldn’t get the mojo back that we had early in the first period.
On Saturday night, we played down at St. Thomas and the story was similar in all but one way. We started the game buzzing again with a lot of great chances early, then the dam finally broke and we got a huge goal from junior Tanner Dufault. That goal kept our momentum going and we got another goal in the first by Moore to take a 2-goal lead after the first period. We also out-shot St. Thomas 16-7 in the first period. We got two more goals in the game from freshman Danny Wieber and sophomore Russ Harren. I should mention that Russ also had a great game playing the body and had some highlight-reel hits in the game.
The key for this team’s success moving forward is playing the game simple and physical. We have to stick to the things that make us successful and that is out-working teams and playing good, solid hockey near the blue lines and through the neutral zone. We are doing a better job at not giving things away and making teams earn what they get.
All of this is not going to get any easier with our series this weekend against Gustavus. They took 5 out of a possible 6 points from St. Thomas a few weeks back and are playing really well. They are a very disciplined team that works very hard. In the past, they have struggled to score, but this year they have found some offensive fire power in MIAC leading-scorer Caleb Anderson. He currently leads the MIAC in goals and points. We need to find a way to shut him down and make the game hard on him.
We play Friday at 7pm in St. Peter and we play at 7pm on Saturday night back at the National Hockey Center for our Senior Night. It should be a great series and we hope to see you at one of the games.
Go Johnnies!
