The St. Thomas men’s and women’s hockey teams faced off against the Minnesota Golden Gophers in a historic matchup at the Xcel Energy Center on Friday, Oct. 13.
It was the first time that the St. Thomas women’s hockey team had played at the arena. The men’s team played there against St. Cloud State in 2022.
The first game’s 4 p.m. start time began with a scattered crowd of purple, with an equally as scattered crowd of maroon and gold. It was a small showing, possibly caused by St. Thomas’ decision to provide a bus for students to the men’s hockey game, but not the women’s.
The Xcel Energy Center is a place unlike the Saint Thomas Ice Arena, the current home rink of the Tommies. While that arena has a max capacity of 1,000, the Xcel’s capacity of 18,300 seats dwarfs the arena shared by both the University of St. Thomas and St. Thomas Academy.
Phil Esten, St. Thomas’ vice president and athletics director said that the crowd size showed how interested people are in the school’s Division I journey.
“Whether it’s at the Saint Thomas Ice Arena in Mendota Heights, or the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, or hopefully tomorrow night at 3M Mariucci Arena in Minneapolis, you’re going to see Tommie fans show up,” Esten said.
It was a night of firsts for not just the hockey teams. St. Thomas sophomore Julia Wheaton sang the national anthem before both games on Friday night and described it as a surreal experience.
“I’ve always dreamed of performing here and singing the national anthem here. It was amazing,” Wheaton said.
Wheaton said that she hopes to sing the national anthem again at future games, once the Lee and Penny Anderson Ice Area opens.
The Gophers (4-0-0, 2-0-0 conference) kicked off the night with a goal ten minutes into the first period of the women’s game, scored by junior forward Abbey Murphy with an assist by sophomore forward Josefin Bouveng. Murphy went on to score a hat trick, leading the Gophers to a 2 goal lead at the end of the first period.
The Tommies (4-2-0, 0-2-0 conference) were unable to respond to the Gopher’s offense and fell 8-0 in the first game of the night. At a post-game press conference, the Tommies’ coach Joel Johnson said that in this game, the Gophers were “just a better team.”
“We’ve got some work to do,” Johnson said. “I told our group I still believe in them, and I thought we were going to win today, and I’m going to continue to believe that because we’re still growing, and I really believe we can compete in this league. But today was not our best representation of that.”
Despite the game’s result, senior forward for St. Thomas, Brieja Parent said that being able to play at the Xcel Energy Center was “unreal.”
“We talked about it before the game, how grateful we were to be in this position, and the opportunity that we were given is once in a lifetime,” Parent said. “Before every game we go around and say what we want to work on (for) this game. … The majority of players said ‘have fun.’ And that was a staple of today. Just have fun, play your game.”
The opportunity was felt by many Tommie fans, like Madelyn Larsin, who graduated from St. Thomas in 2015.
“It’s wild. I’ve just been imagining what it would have been like to come here to a game when I was a student, it would have been so much fun,” Larsin said. “It’s been lovely.”
Around 6:50 p.m., the bus from St. Thomas that brought St. Thomas students arrived, and slowly, a trickle of purple began to fill the empty green seats of the Xcel Energy Center. By the start of the men’s game, a solid contingent of Tommies had filled the stands. But so had the Gophers. The night had a total attendance of 11,376.
The crowd was responsive. St. Thomas fans broke out into chants of “Let’s go Tommies,” to which Gophers fans responded with “D3, D3, D3.”
The men’s game was hard-fought. The Gophers (2-0-0, 0-0-0 conference) scored twice in the first period, and the Tommies (1-3-0, 0-0-0 conference) responded with three points against Minnesota in the second period. The teams entered the third period with a score of 3-2, with the Tommies leading.
Sophomore Charlie Nasby said that seeing the Tommies face off against the Gophers was a “pivotal” moment in the future of St. Thomas athletics.
“This is the start of a new rivalry. It will be the battle of the river,” Nasby said.
After two more goals from St. Thomas and three from Minnesota, the third period ended at a score of 5-5, with first-year Tobias Abrahamsson’s first collegiate goal tying the game. As the game entered overtime, there was a palpable tension in the air from both crowds.
The Tommies and the Gophers were also tied 36-36 for shots on goal.
84 seconds into the 3-on-3 overtime, the Gophers scored, ending the game 6-5 against the Tommies.
“That was a great hockey game, great environment. Both teams played hard tonight. They just made one extra play,” coach Rico Blasi said in a postgame press conference. “I’m proud of our team, I’m proud of our identity, I’m proud of our culture. We’ve got to continue to focus on that.”
The St. Thomas women’s hockey team will play next at 3 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 20, against Ohio State at the Saint Thomas Ice Arena in Mendota Heights. The men’s team will face off against Lindenwood at 7:07 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 20, also at Saint Thomas Ice Arena.
Owen Larson can be reached at lars6521@stthomas.edu.