The St. Thomas men’s hockey team lost 5-1 Friday in its home opener against St. Olaf at the St. Thomas Ice Arena.

Junior Matt Lipinski scored the only goal of the night for the Tommies in the third period. Lipinski was assisted by team captain and senior Andrew Kappers and junior Chris Hickey.

Coach Jeff Boeser said before the game that if the players worked hard and played smart, they would do well in Friday’s game. Boeser took over as coach this year after former coach Terry Skrypek retired, making Boeser the first new coach in 23 years.

Senior Sean Deichert took on a new role as goalie this year. He said the team did not pick up the pace until the third period of the game.

“Last night’s game was a lesson and learning experience for us,” Deichert said. “We have to learn from last night and build on it for the rest of the season to be successful.”

Captain Andrew Kappers also said the game started slow for the team, and they were not able to recover.

“Even though we lost it will be something that we can look back at and say this will never happen again,” Kappers said. “It was a loss, but we can still take some positives away from it and build on those.”

The team is also coached by Parker Burgess, a recent St. Thomas graduate, who is a streng and recruiting coordinator. Burgess was captain of the 2009-2010 hockey team.

The team will compete Saturday at the St. Thomas Academy ice arena against the University of Wisconsin-Stout.

Nathan Spencer can be reached at spen9079@stthomas.edu.