The St. Thomas men’s hockey team (4-2-1 overall, 3-0 MIAC) took down the Bethel Royals (0-6-1 overall, 0-3 MIAC) 5-2 Friday night in a one-sided battle at the St. Thomas Ice Arena.

St. Thomas held the winless Arden Hills-based program in check, but coach Jeff Boeser considered the game a lower performance than what his team is capable of.

“I think this team kind of sold themselves short tonight,” Boeser said. “We’ll take the win any night, but I think they all know in that room they have more in us than we showed tonight.”

The night started off with a goal just over two and a half minutes into the game from forward Cullen Willox and assisted by forward Nick Nielsen. Willox is a valuable asset to an offense growing in tenacity, according to defenseman John Kirtland.

“(Brian) Leblanc’s line, they played really well tonight,” Kirtland said. “Those three were probably our best line tonight, and they’re our fourth line. So it was good to see that.”

The Tommies did not let up as forward Michael Dockry capitalized on a power-play opportunity off assists from forward Connor McBride and defenseman Johnny Roisum. Bethel was able to counter with its own special-teams goal in the first period. That was the last scoring play spectators would see until Dockry slammed home the winning power-play goal near the end of the second period.

St. Thomas has new special teams personnel, which is important for a team developing a new offensive identity, according to Boeser.

“With the way everybody plays their neutral zone now, they take away the middle so you can’t come through with speed,” Boeser said. “To be honest, that’s not how I like to play … we don’t have a lot of high-skill players; we don’t have the Detroit Red Wings. We just just got to simplify our game, go to work and forecheck hard.”

Chemistry is improving in the team though, according to forward Brian Leblanc.

“We lost some really good players, couple All-Americans, but I think we really gelled as a unit more than last year,” Leblanc said. “It’s also good to have some fresh legs in the lineup with these freshmen contributing.”

Forward Jimmy Kortum netted a goal halfway through the third period. Bethel was not done though. Defenseman Michael Bond chipped a lucky power-play goal off the knee of Kirtland 40 seconds later.

“It was a bad bounce, one of the guys got a shot on Joe (Morris) and just happened to bounce off my shin pad and go in, but it happens,” Kirtland said.

McBride added an empty-net goal with two seconds left to seal the Tommies’ win.

St. Thomas and Bethel play again Saturday night on the Royals’ home ice at the Schwan Super Rink in Blaine.

“When you set the bar high, there can be things not to be pleased with,” Boeser said. “But you bet we’ll push hard tomorrow.”

Jake Remes can be reached at reme7110@stthomas.edu.