Mendota Heights, Minn. – After suffering its worst loss since a 9-1 defeat at the hands of Concordia on Feb. 9, 2010, last night at Don Roberts Ice Rink, the Gustavus men’s hockey was looking for a turnaround tonight against St. Thomas in the series finale. Unfortunately for the Gusties, St. Thomas had different plans. Although the Black and Gold led 1-0 following the second period, St. Thomas answered with two goals in third to complete the sweep with a 2-1 win.
Gustavus has dropped its last four games and is now 3-5-0 overall and 0-4-0 in the MIAC. St. Thomas improves to 5-2-1 overall and 4-0-0 in the MIAC with the four point weekend.
The two squads skated through first period without tallying a goal. Both teams failed to convert on one power paly chance, as St. Thomas had the shot advantage in the opening frame 10-7.
For the first time in three contests, Gustavus managed to score the first goal of the game, putting in the go-ahead score early in the second period. Adam Smyth (Jr., Burnsville, Minn.) and Tyler Lapic (So., New Prague, Minn.) assisted Ryan Johnson (Sr., Blaine, Minn.) at the 5:30 mark to give Gustavus a 1-0 lead.
The Gusties outshot St. Thomas 11-8 in the second. The special teams battle remained gridlocked as both the Gusties and Tommies failed to convert on two power play attempts.
St. Thomas turned up the pressure in the final 20 minutes, outshooting the Gusties 12-5. Tyler Richter gave St. Thomas momentum by tying the game at 1-1 with a goal at the 8:20 mark. Six minutes later at the 14:13 mark, Pat Mahoney scored the game-winning goal to bring the score to a final at 2-1.
Gustavus struggled to capitalize on the power-play throughout the night, going 0-for-2 in the third period and 0-for-5 in the game. Gustavus’ penalty kill shut St. Thomas down on all three of its tries on the man-advantage.
In his second appearance of the season, Gustavus goaltender Patrick Sullivan (So., Kelowna, B.C.) turned in a strong performance despite the loss in net, stopping 28 of St. Thomas’ 30 shots on goal. The loss is Sullivan’s first of the season as he is now 1-1-0.
Despite seeing his shutout streak end after 145:30 minutes, Tyrone Simcoe picked up the complete-game victory after making 22 saves.
The Gustavus men’s hockey team will attempt to snap its current four-game losing-steak next weekend when it travels to Massachusetts for games against Amherst College and Williams College. The Gusties will first take on Amherst on Friday, Nov. 23 at 6:00 p.m. in Amherst. They will then travel to Williamstown to battle Williams on Saturday, Nov. 24 at 6:00 p.m.