The Gustavus men?s hockey team ended the regular season with a 4-2 loss to St. Thomas at Don Roberts Rink in St. Peter. With the loss, the Gusties fall to 12-10-3 overall and 9-5-2 in the MIAC, while St. Thomas improves to 15-7-3 overall and 13-2-1 in the MIAC.
The Gusties jumped out to a 1-0 on a power-play goal by Joe Ulwelling at 7:04 of the first period. The Tommies would counter with goals by Adam Cozine (shorthanded) at 11:11 and Skylar Kangas (power-play) at 18:01. St. Thomas led 2-1 at the end of the first period.
The Tommies extended their lead to 3-1 on a goal by Anthony Blumer six minutes into the second period. Gustavus stayed close with a fluke goal late in the second period. With the Gusties attempting to kill a penalty, an errant pass from Tommie netminder Zach Sikich ended up on the stick of Gustavus forward Drew Keller alone in front of the net and he slid it over the goal line for a shorthanded goal at the 16:18 mark. The second period ended with the Tommies holding a 3-2 advantage.
Saint Thomas would ice the game with Adam Cozine?s second goal of the game just two minutes into the third period. It would turn out to be the only goal of the period.
Brett Sawyer recorded 14 saves for Gustavus and suffered the loss. Zach Sikich picked up the win for St. Thomas while recording 15 saves. The game was marred by 22 penalties including four fighting disqualifications (two for each team) with :05 seconds left in the game. The Gusties were one-for-seven on the powerplay, while St. Thomas finished one-for-four with the man-advantage.
Gustavus finished in third place in the league standings and will play at the #2 seed next Friday night in the MIAC Playoffs. The #2 seed will likely be St. Thomas, however if Augsburg were to sweep St. John?s this weekend, the Tommies would move into first place and St. John?s would be the #2 seed.