The St. Thomas men’s hockey team scored its first goal in three games, but the Tommies couldn’t get a win, losing 5-1 to Penn State University Tuesday night at St. Thomas Ice Arena in Mendota Heights.
Senior goaltender Jacob Berger was in net the whole game, saving 44 of 49 shots that came his way from Penn State (8-6).
“I thought (Berger) was great,” coach Rico Blasi said. “I thought he handled it well and made the saves we needed to make.”
An elbowing and game misconduct penalty to Penn State junior forward Kenny Johnson gave the Tommies (1-14) five minutes of five-on-four play, which helped first-year forward Trevor LeDonne score his first collegiate goal.
The Tommies lone goal, assisted by first-year forward Blaine Warnert and junior defender Trevor Zins towards the end of the first period, gave the Tommies a 1-0 lead going into the second period.
“I thought we played really well in the first period, and kind of got away from our game in the second period and started playing their game,” Blasi said. “They’re a very opportunistic team in terms of getting pucks in the net.”
“Obviously, it’s tough,” LeDonne added. “Our main goal is to win the game, and we didn’t do that tonight.”
The Nittany Lions responded with three goals in the second period. Senior defender Clayton Phillips scored in just over three minutes into the period and first-year forward Ryan Kirwan 12:35 into the period.
Around two and a half minutes later, sophomore forward Tyler Paquette put in Penn State’s third goal to give the Nittany Lions the 3-1 lead going into the second period.
Two more goals toward the end of the third period from Penn State by Paquette and first-year forward Ben Schoen was the icing on the cake for the Nittany Lions. LeDonne noted six penalties for St. Thomas and four for Penn State as a challenge tonight.
“We took too many penalties tonight, myself included,” LeDonne said, who took two penalties in the third period. “That hurts us in the end when we have to kill most of that third period.”
St. Thomas had 14 shots on goal, all but one saved by Penn State senior goaltender Oskar Autio.
The Tommies face the Nittany Lions again at 7 p.m. Wednesday back in Mendota Heights.
“We got to make sure that we’re focused on our game for 60 minutes,” Blasi said. “We did it for 20 today, but we didn’t do it for much more than that.”
Justin Amaker can be reached at justin.amaker@stthomas.edu.
Casey Eakins can be reached at casey.eakins@stthomas.edu.
Rori West can be reached at rori.west@stthomas.edu.