For three periods Friday, the St. Thomas women’s hockey team pressed incessantly against Wisconsin-Eau Claire, and after 40 minutes of play, the Tommies trailed 2-0.

But the Tommies (1-1-0 overall, 0-0-0 MIAC) were always pressuring, always on the verge of a breakthrough which would take down the wall in front of them. In the third period, St. Thomas exploded for three goals – the last one with just 2.6 seconds left in the game – en route to a 3-2 win against Eau Claire (0-3-0 overall, 0-0-0 WIAC).

“First period, I didn’t think we played very well. We outshot them badly, but the quality of shots were not very good. We needed to do a better job of being in a position to score,” coach Tom Palkowski said.

While the Tommies outshot the Blugolds by a staggering 13-4 margin in the first period, the scoreboard read 1-0 at halftime.

“Second period, I feel like we got our legs moving and created some things. We didn’t play as smart as we could have, but we kept playing, wore them down, and it paid dividends in the third,” Palkowski said.

Even after a resurgent second period, St. Thomas still failed to get going offensively and conceded its second goal of the game.

But early in the third period, the Tommies finally began to pick out the weaknesses in the opposition. Forward Tara Baago scored the first of the Tommies’ three third-period goals just 2:36 into the final frame.

“We knew we just needed one – the first one. Our coach says the first one’s important, the second’s more important and the third is most important, so knew we wanted that third goal so we could turn it around and get it going,” Baago said.

After a spark from Baago, the Tommies – who outshot the Blugolds 46-12 total – showed a bit of life for the first time all night. But it was defender Tori Bailey who changed the game for St. Thomas.

“Comebacks? We can do them. It’s the game of hockey. You get a lucky bounce, and off and you go,” Bailey said.

With 13:10 left in regulation, Bailey netted her first goal of the game to tie it at 2-2, but she didn’t stop there.

With just seconds left to play, Baago got into space on the wing and rifled the puck toward the net. Baago’s attempt found Bailey, who was waiting in front of the net and tapped it in for the game-winner with only 2.6 seconds left on the clock.

“If the effort’s there, it’s going to happen. I feel like we took it and picked each other up. That helps down the stretch. It wasn’t there in the first two periods, but it was definitely there in the third,” Bailey said.

While the late game-winner – Bailey’s second goal of the game – meant disaster for a deflated Eau Claire team, it was a perfect cap after a frustrating game for St. Thomas.

“We all wanted it. We knew we should have beat them. We just needed to continue to find that way to get it in, keep digging, keep trying, and it popped out a win,” Baago said.

After a loss against No. 4-ranked Wisconsin-River Falls in its season-opener last week, St. Thomas got its first win of the season with the comeback victory. The Tommies will start conference play next weekend with a home-and-home against St. Mary’s.

Luke Moe can be reached at moe95234@stthomas.edu.