Men’s hockey loses in semifinals against St. John’s

Forward Luke Radetic fires a shot at the net. Radetic scored the only goal for the Tommies in their 4-1 loss to St. John’s in the MIAC semifinal Saturday. (Matthew Curry/tommiemedia)

ST. CLOUD, Minn. — First-year forward Luke Radetic scored the Tommies’ only goal in a 4-1 loss to St. John’s in the MIAC semifinals Saturday at Herb Brooks National Hockey Center.

Despite heavily outshooting their rivals 40-21, the Tommies (14-6-5 overall, 8-3-5 MIAC) ended its season on the road against conference rivals Johnnies (11-9-5 overall, 9-4-3 MIAC).

“I feel bad for the guys,” coach Jeff Boeser said. “We just couldn’t score. Maybe we made a couple mistakes on goals we gave up. But we just could not put the puck in the net.”

The Johnnies struck midway through the first period on a power play goal by defenseman Sean Lang with an assist by forward Ryan Kero. Both teams played solid defense, each allowing only nine shots on goal.

Lang scored his second goal with assists from Ryan Kero and forward Matt Colford in the second period. Colford went on to score the team’s second power play goal minutes later.

The Tommies narrowed the gap with a goal by forward Luke Radetic with less than four minutes to play in the second period.

“I mean, we had nothing to lose.” Radetic said. “A shot on net is a shot on net … we were crashing the net and it luckily went in.”

Johnnie forward Evan Okeley answered with a goal midway through the third period to bring the deficit back to three.The Tommies were unable to route back.

Unless selected for the NCAA tournament on Monday, March 4, the team will end this season and prepare for the next.

“I’m just thinking about the seniors,” Radetic said. “It’s just all about them right now. Most of them, if not all of them, probably won’t play [official] hockey again. I can’t thank them enough for welcoming us as freshman … can’t say nothing but good things about them.”

Matthew Curry can be reached at curr1523@stthomas.edu.