Junior defender Trevor Zins scored his first career goal for the St. Thomas men’s hockey team, but it wasn’t enough to give the Tommies their first win against Ferris State University in a 2-1 overtime match Friday at St. Thomas Ice Arena in Mendota Heights.
Graduate student forward Christiano Versich and junior forward Luke Manning assisted Zins’ goal.
“You do it for the team … so it’s special to yourself, and hopefully I keep them coming,” Zins said.
After a scoreless but penalty-heavy first period, Zins scored 12 minutes in to give the Tommies (0-7-0, 0-5-0 CCHA) a 1-0 lead going into the third period.
“It was kind of a weird game. I didn’t think either team really executed very well,” coach Rico Blasi said. “I can only speak for our team and I thought we could have … managed the puck a little bit better.”
Ferris State junior defender Brenden Rons scored a power-play goal for the Bulldogs (2-3-0, 1-0-0 CCHA) to tie the game 1-1 at the end of regulation.
Just over a minute into overtime, senior forward Liam MacDougall put the 26th shot of the game for the Bulldogs, and the only shot in overtime, past graduate student goalie Peter Thome to give Ferris State its first CCHA win of the season.
“Going into the third period with a lead like that, we just got to simplify our game and just … double down on it and play hard,” Thome said.
Ferris State sophomore goaltender Logan Stein faced 26 shots from the Tommies in their first Division I game at St. Thomas Ice Arena.
“There’s a good amount of people here,” Thome said. “It’s a fun atmosphere. It’s unfortunate we couldn’t get our first one for them.”
Despite not winning a game yet, the team goes into each game understanding the DI learning curve.
“That’s how it’s gonna be all year long,” Zins said. “It’s not going to be five-nothing wins, it’s going to be those one-nothing or two-nothing games that are going to get us wins.”
The Tommies have another shot at their first win of the season in a rematch against the Bulldogs Saturday night at home.
“It’s going to take a little bit to figure that out, and once we do, it’ll be a good feeling,” Zins said.
Justin Amaker can be reached at justin.amaker@stthomas.edu.