After 23 years and both teams transitioning to Division I, the St. Thomas men’s hockey team faced off against Bemidji State University, where the Beavers won 5-2 Saturday at St. Thomas Ice Arena.
The Tommies (1-16-0, 1-10-0 CCHA) last played the Beavers (9-6-0, 7-2-0 CCHA) on Nov. 29, 1998, where the Tommies won 4-3 in overtime.
Sophomore forwards Sam Renlund and Aaron Swanson both scored their first goals of their St. Thomas hockey careers, within three minutes of each other in the third period.
“It’s a pretty good feeling,” Swanson said of his first collegiate career goal.
But, it was too late by the time they scored; the Beavers were able to bury four before the Tommies’ goals. The first came from senior forward Owen Sillinger just over halfway through the first period, giving Bemidji State the 1-0 lead going into the second period.
Beavers senior forward Alex Ierullo put in another goal halfway through the second period off a Sillinger pass before junior forward Sam Solensky scored his first of the season, giving the Beavers a 3-0 lead going into the third period.
Just under three minutes into the third period, Solensky put in his second goal of the season, giving the Beavers a 4-0 lead before Renlund’s goal for the Tommies, assisted by senior forward Grant Loven and junior forward Luke Manning.
“I thought we had some stretches where we were playing a really good brand of hockey and we had some lapses in judgment that ended up being in the back of our net and that was pretty much the game,” coach Rico Blasi said.
Before Swanson’s assisted goal by first-year forward Tim Piechowski and sophomore defender Ethan Gauer, Beavers senior defender Tyler Jubenvill put in one more for Bemidji State.
Graduate student goaltender Peter Thome guarded the net for the Tommies, and saved 18 out of 23 shots from the Beavers.
“(Thome) made some big saves,” Blasi said. “He got backdoored three times.”
The Tommies were not far off from the Beavers however, bringing in 20 shots on goal to Beavers sophomore goaltender Gavin Enright, who saved 18.
The Tommies are back in Mendota Heights Saturday at 7:07 p.m. to rematch Bemidji State, where Blasi hopes to clean up some messy parts of the game from tonight.
“We have to clean up and be prideful in our defensive awareness,” Blasi said. “That’s the bottom line.”
Justin Amaker can be reached at justin.amaker@stthomas.edu.