Dominating the faceoff dot and outshooting Bowling Green wasn’t enough to stop the Falcons from defeating the St. Thomas Tommies 3-1 Saturday night in their fourth and final meeting of the 2023-2024 regular season.
The Tommies (13-15-2, 11-8-1 CCHA) met the Falcons (13-16-1, 11-8-1) at St. Thomas Ice Arena for the second game of their weekend series, after losing in a shootout on Friday night.
“They executed a couple more plays than we did, they blocked a lot of shots. Their goaltender, we didn’t make it hard on him,” St. Thomas coach Rico Blasi said after the game.
Falcon sophomore forward Brett Pfoh scored his 7th goal of the season just 53 seconds into the game with a long-range wrist shot. St. Thomas would get a power play opportunity three minutes later after Falcon sophomore defender Dalton Norris held Tommie first-year student forward J.D. Metz.
St. Thomas sophomore forward Lucas Wahlin had an open look on the power play, but his shot was stopped by Falcon first-year goaltender Cole Moore.
St. Thomas would come up empty on the power play, and the remainder of the first period. Things got chippy towards the end of the period, and at one point, a faceoff had to be delayed for over 30 seconds due to St. Thomas’ Wahlin and Bowling Green’s Pfoh refusing to stop prodding at each other.
Bowling Green senior forward Seth Fyten doubled the Falcon lead halfway through the second period. Jake Sibell may have ended the night with a loss, but Coach Blasi echoed his support of his Mike Richter award semifinalist goaltender.
“I think he would have wanted the one (goal) back, the second one, but other than that, I thought he played well,” Blasi said. Sibell ended up with 23 saves in the evening.
The Tommies outshot the Falcons 19-14 and won the faceoff battle 33-16 through two periods, but St. Thomas finished the second period just as they finished the first; without finding the back of the Bowling Green net.
Bowling Green’s Fyten lost an edge and fell down in open ice, inadvertently tripping St Thomas’ Chase Cheslock, sending the New Jersey Devils’ draft pick flying, and sliding across the entire neutral zone before coming to a stop. Fyten was sent to the penalty box, and St Thomas would capitalize 18 seconds later when junior forward Matthew Gleason scored his 3rd goal of the season.
The Tommies pulled junior goaltender Jake Sibell with 1:59 left in the third period. 30 seconds into the Tommies’ six-on-five advantage, Fyten would take another trip to the penalty box for delivering a cross-check long after the referee’s whistle, giving St. Thomas an ideal six-on-four advantage for the rest of the game.
Senior defenseman Ethan Gauer blocked a Falcon shot on the Tommie’s empty net with 46 seconds left, momentarily keeping the game alive for St. Thomas. When he attempted to block another Falcon shot 20 seconds later, he tripped Falcon sophomore forward Jaden Grant, who was shooting at the open net, and the referees awarded the goal to Bowling Green, since it would have gone in anyway had Gauer not committed the penalty.
The clock ran out, and Bowling Green finished the game with a 3-1 victory.
After the two weekend losses, the Tommies now sit at a three-way tie for second place in the CCHA, alongside Bowling Green and Minnesota State.
The Tommies traveled to Ohio back in early November and won both games in regulation against the Falcons at the Slater Family Ice Arena, so the Tommies ultimately won the season series against the Falcons, despite losing both games in Mendota Heights.
The Tommies finish their home schedule next weekend with a Friday and Saturday series against conference leaders Bemidji State at St. Thomas Ice Arena.
Karl Warner can be reached at warn5356@stthomas.edu.