MENDOTA HEIGHTS, Minn. – St. Thomas men’s hockey was unable to score on St. John’s senior goalie Andrew Lindgren, leading to a 4-0 defeat Saturday at Saint Thomas Ice Arena.
St. Thomas senior forward Brett Gravelle led the team with seven shots, but Lindgren saved all 42 shots he faced.
“He (Lindgren) was our best player on the ice tonight, and he really proved it with that goose egg on the board,” St. John’s assistant coach Cory Thorson said.
St. John’s took a 1-0 lead after three minutes of play, with a goal from junior forward Tanner Dufault assisted by first-year defender Peter Tabor.
“It was good to get the boys going right away, I mean we kind of powdered them for the first period and that helped go the rest of the way,” Tabor said. “He (Lindgren) played a great game, so we didn’t have to do much.”
St. John’s struck again during a power play with under a minute remaining in the first period. Junior defender Kyle Wagner skated end-to-end and set up first-year forward Auggie Moore to give Saint John’s a 2-0 lead.
After two periods, both teams had 24 shots each.
Roughly six minutes into the third period, Lindgren faced pressure from the Tommies resulting in the loss of his stick.
“You never want your goalie to lose his stick– let’s just put it that way,” Thorson said.
During the third period, the Tommies managed to outshoot the Johnnies 18-1.
“I’ll take the last 30 minutes and you can throw the first 30 minutes in the garbage,” St. Thomas coach Jeff Boeser said. “There’s a sense of urgency here, we have four games left and we’re not in the playoffs right now.”
Sophomore forward Russell Harren topped off the win for the Johnnies as he scored a breakaway goal with three minutes left in the game.
The Tommies travel to St. Scholastica Tuesday for a 7:30 p.m. match with the Crusaders.
Joey Swanson can be reached at swan5350@stthomas.edu.
Burke Spizale contributed to this report.