NEWS

The University of St. Thomas, hoping to continue their strong start to the season, hosted the University of Minnesota-Duluth for a pair of interdivisional games in St. Paul. The Bulldogs brought their full effort on Friday and almost earned two big points, but St. Thomas found a late winner and followed it up on Saturday with a big win.

Showing no weary signs of travel, Minnesota-Duluth came out with intent on Friday and promptly controlled the early going. In fact, it took the Bulldogs only two minutes to open the scoring through Willy Basill. After a penalty each that were successfully killed off, St. Thomas tied the game up on a second power play opportunity with Carter Hillsgrove finishing off a chance to tie the game at 1.

The scoreline would hold into the second, when UMD would again take the lead via a Carson Lewis goal after six minutes. Once again, though, St. Thomas took advantage of a power play chance that followed as Joe Alberts netted to even the game at 2 with 12 minutes remaining in the second. From there, both teams battoned down the hatches, with strong defensive play - including a string of nice saves from both goaltenders - keeping the game tied through much of the remainder. As the clock wound down, though, the game opened up slightly as the teams battled for a winner. With the game still tied late on, a bounce here or there would determine the game. On this occasion, it was the hosts that found the breakthrough when Grant Horsager scored the Tommies' third power play goal with just 3:05 left in the third. UMD would pull the goalie late hoping for an equalizer, but it did not come as St. Thomas saw out the close 3-2 win.

Saturday's game followed a different script, as the Tommies methodically built a lead while denying the Bulldogs at every turn for what became a comfortable win. The high tempo of the game that was so prevalent on Friday was missed on Saturday, with both teams taking a fair amount of penalties over the course of 60 minutes. UST got on the board early with goals from John Gleason and Will Schwartz to carry a 2-0 lead into the second. As the Bulldogs worked to get back into the game, St. Thomas stayed patient, then took their chances with two more tallies - one each from Matt Jaglo and Carter Hillsgrove - to increase the lead to 4-0 after 2.

At every turn, Tommies' goalie Ben Zitur turned away the Minnesota-Duluth chances. Jaglo added his second 10 minutes into the third, and Ben Papke netted a minute and a half later to complete the Tommies scoring. Unable to break through late in the game, the Bulldogs suffered a second defeat as UST closed out a strong 6-0 win.

Offensively, the Tommies got contributions across the lineup led by Matt Jaglo with 4 points on 2 goals and 2 assists. Cole Broome earned the win on Friday, while Ben Zitur got the shutout victory on Saturday by stopping all 28 shots. For UMD, Carson Lewin and Willy Basill scored, with the later holding the team lead in points with 7 in 8 games. Goalies Nick Becker and Brady Anderson each logged a loss.

Two more wins means the St. Thomas winning streak is now at 5 games, with an overall record of 7-1-1. St. Thomas will take on Bethel on Thursday night before hosting North Dakota this weekend with all 3 being WCCHA independent games. Minnesota-Duluth, now 1-8 despite almost uniformly strong efforts, will hope to get back in the win column this coming weekend as they travel to UW-La Crosse for 2 independent games.