The Gustavus Men’s hockey team faced a difficult challenge against top seeded St. Thomas on Feb 24 where they fought to a 4-3 overtime victory to advance to the MIAC championship game.
After a scoreless first period, St. Thomas tallied the game’s first goal two minutes into the second period.
The Gusties would respond shortly after with a power play goal from Sophomore Colton Schmidt and would add another to their total two minutes later with a shot from Junior Van Sullivan.
St. Thomas then answered with a power play goal of their own, to even the score at two apiece.
In the third period, St. Thomas took the lead, sending a shot past Junior goalie Chris Amsden to take the lead.
The Gusties would not wait to answer however, as Senior Jake McCann scored less than two minutes later to push the game into overtime.
“We were down a couple times, which was something that we struggled with at the beginning of the year. But I think we outplayed them the whole game. I think we did better playing physically and playing a full 60 minutes,” Senior Captain Tim Donahue said.
Gustavus made quick work of St. Thomas in the extra period, as Schmidt sent his second goal of the past the Tommie goaltender, securing Gustavus’ place in the championship game.
“It was all about buying into who we are as a team. You hear a lot of people talking about identity of teams and we definitely found ours. We all bought into what we needed to do to become a championship team,” Donahue said.
Amsden stopped 16 of the 19 Tommie shots sent his way and Freshman Mason Etter led Gustavus with five of their total 31 shots in the victory.
After shocking St. Thomas in overtime the previous week, the Gustavus Men’s hockey team moved on to the MIAC championship game against Augsburg in Minneapolis, falling 3-1 to the defending champions.
The Gusties started off the scoring first with an unassisted goal from Senior J.T. Walters at the 16:46 mark of the first period. Gustavus would take the 1-0 advantage into the second period while each team tallied 2 shots on goal in the first frame.
The Auggies controlled the second period, outshooting Gustavus 21-6 and eventually evening up the score with a goal late in the second period.
“We got in some penalty trouble and it definitely threw some wind out of our sails,” Donahue said.
About nine minutes into the third period, Augsburg added to their goal total with a shot from Lukas Gillett. Only a few minutes later did Augsburg register the final goal of the night, sending a shot past Amsden for the Auggie’s third and final goal.
The final shot total leaned it Augsburg’s favor, 48-27 while each team went on the power play three times with neither team converting. Junior Evan Erickson registered the most shots on goal for the Gusties with 4 and Amsden stopped 45 shots in the loss.
On top of a championship game appearance, multiple Gusties were honored for their accomplishments this season along with Coach Brett Petersen who was named Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Men’s Hockey Coach of the Year in his 18th season at the helm. It is the third time Coach Petersen has won the award.
Four Gusties were also honored with postseason awards as Amsden received an All-Conference nod and Freshman Robbie Goor, Will LeNeave and Caleb Anderson were all selected as members of the All-Rookie Team.
Nine of the Gusties’ twelve wins came while Amsden was tending the twine and his .929 save percentage and his average of 2.21 goals allowed per game ranked 3rd and 2nd in the MIAC, respectively.
“I see a good future for us just because of the past of this team. Gustavus is written in tradition. Our coaches never set the bar lower, we are a bare level playoff team every year and that is our expectation” Donahue said.