ST. CLOUD, Minn. – Brett Gravelle scored two goals against the Johnnies, leading the St. Thomas men’s hockey team to a 4-1 win Saturday at the Herb Brooks National Hockey Center, advancing the Tommies to the MIAC championship for the first time since 2017.
The first period had six penalties, three for each team. Gravelle, on a power play, scored the opening goal of the game toward the end of the first period to put the Tommies (14-10-3) ahead 1-0.
“Phil Fromberger made a great pass off the wall, it came to me on the backside, and I had an open shot and luckily it went in,” Gravelle said.
Gravelle scored again in the second period, assisted by Broydon Stufko.
“Stufko made a nice pass and another shot went in, so both were nice passes,” Gravelle said.
Jack Christensen opened the third period with a goal, assisted by Spencer Zwiener and Jake Peterson, to put the Tommies on top 3-0.
“It’s just big to help the team out in anyway, Spencer (Zwiener) got a good pass to me, and I just got next to the net and was lucky the puck tipped on my stick and went in,” Christensen said.
Jack Vincent scored the last Tommie goal, assisted by Justin Kelley with over thirteen minutes left in the third period.
“It’s just nice to kind of widen the lead 4-0. Justin (Kelley) made a nice play to pick the puck off and found me down low,” Vincent said.
First-year goalie Henry Baribeau stopped 34 of the 35 shots on goal. St. John’s (12-9-5) senior forward Kyle Wagner scored on the power play late in the third period, preventing Baribeau from a shutout.
“In the playoffs you just need to win, I mean it would be nice to get one (shutout) but maybe another time,” Baribeau said. “The team helps, and I can’t play without them in front blocking shots and making my job easier.”
Coach Jeff Boeser will make his third appearance in a MIAC championship as St. Thomas head coach Saturday.
“(St. John’s) is a really good hockey team, and we just beat them. It wasn’t easy as the score says,” Boeser said. “We played really well defensively in front of the net; they had a lot of chances.”
The Tommies will play the winner of Saturday’s semifinal match between No. 3 seed Augsburg and No. 2 seed Concordia-Moorhead. The winner of this game will host the championship March 7.
“We’re not really going to change much. Fresh minds, fresh legs and energy up,” Boeser said.
Andres Tejeda can be reached teje4962@stthomas.edu.
Justin Amaker contributed to this report.