2023–24 St. Thomas (Minnesota) Tommies men's ice hockey season

The 2023–24 St. Thomas (Minnesota) Tommies men's ice hockey season was the 100th season of play for the program, the 3rd in Division I and the 3rd in the CCHA. The Tommies represented the University of St. Thomas (Minnesota), played their home games at the St. Thomas Ice Arena and were coached by Enrico Blasi in his 3rd season.
==Season==
High roster turnover continued to remake the Tommies as the team was looking to fully become a Division I program. Most of the departed personnel were from their D-III era and were replaced by ones with a higher level of talent, several of whom were transfers. St. Thomas demonstrated just how much they had chanced when the team opened with a pair of 1-goal decisions against #8 St. Cloud State, splitting the home-and-home series. While they weren't quite as successful the following week against the #2 team in the nation, the fact that the team was able to push Minnesota into overtime spoke volumes. One early development for the Tommies was the introduction of a goaltending rotation that saw Aaron Trotter share responsibilities with Niagara transfer Jake Sibell. St. Thomas benefitted from the arrangement and saw the club put together a 5-game winning streak in November to climb to the top of the conference standings.
The offense, too, was looking better through the first two months of the season. While the team had been shutout three times early in the year, the winning streak saw the Tommies' production soar to new heights and make it possible for the team to possess a winning record by December. Unfortunately, the scoring became inconsistent afterwards and the Tommies stumbled to the winter break. In the final seven games of 2023, the offense scored more than 2 goals just once and lost five of those matches.
St. Thomas didn't restart its conference schedule until mid-January but the time off seemed to help the team. Upon their return, the Tommies swept Michigan Tech for the first time in school history and regained the top spot in the conference. However, after splitting the succeeding two weekend series, the team ran into another rough patch. In February the goaltending began to flag and St. Thomas won just once in their final eight games. The losses cost the Tommies their chance at a regular season title but they still managed to finish 2nd.
The team's reward was a meeting with Lake Superior State and their first home playoff game since joining the CCHA. However, despite their position in the standings, St. Thomas was not heavily favored in the series. Aside from the skid to end the season, the Tommies only had one more win than the Lakers in conference play and actually had a (slightly) worse overall record. The teams then demonstrated their similarity by splitting the first two games in the quarterfinals to set up a deciding third game. St. Thomas was able to use its power play to get two 1-goal leads and carried the advantage deep into the third but they could not sustain their edge. Both teams continued to fight for the next goal over the final nine minutes of the game. Just when it appeared that the match was destined for overtime, Lake Superior got on a rush and fired a strong shot on goal. Trotter made a tremendous save but the puck bound high in the air and fell at the feet of a Laker player standing in the crease. He slammed the rubber home before any of the purple defenders could stop him and gave Lake State the winning marker with under 7 seconds to play.
In spite of the heartbreaking end, St. Thomas had made great strides during the season. The Tommies had seen modest improvements on both offense and defense and, with more than have of the roster comprising underclassmen, the program has the potential to continue their ascent.
An exhibition match against USNTDP that was scheduled for January 27 was cancelled.
==Departures==
Henry Baribeau 	Goaltender		Graduation (retired)
Garrett Daly 	Defenseman		Graduation (retired)
Josh Eernisse 	Forward 		Transferred to Michigan
Matt Jennings 	Forward 		Graduation (signed with Adirondack Thunder)
Andrew Kangas 	Forward 		Graduation (signed with Adirondack Thunder)
Luke Kron 	Defenseman		Left program
Trevor LeDonne 	Defenseman		Transferred to Robert Morris
Jarrett Lee 	Forward 		Graduation (signed with Wheeling Nailers)
Luke Perunovich	Defenseman		Graduation (retired)
Ethan Roberts 	Goaltender		Transferred to Utica
Nolan Sawchuk 	Defenseman		Graduation (retired)
Blaine Warnert 	Forward 		Transferred to Augsburg
Trevor Zins 	Defenseman		Graduation (signed with Indy Fuel)
==Recruiting==
Tobias Abrahamsson	Defenseman 		20	Jonkoping, SWE
Chase Cheslock 	Defenseman 		19	Rogers, MN; joined mid-season; selected 154th overall in 2023
Ryder Donovan 	Forward 		22	Duluth, MN; graduate transfer from Wisconsin; selected 110th overall in 2019
Matthew Gleason 	Forward 		21	Saint Paul, MN; transfer from Colorado College
Liam Malmquist 	Forward 		22	Edina, MN; transfer from Wisconsin
James Marooney 	Defenseman 		24	Chaska, MN; graduate transfer from Ohio State
J. D. Metz 	Defenseman/Forward		20	Mahtomedi, MN
Cole Miller 	Defenseman 		21	Littleton, CO
Mason Poolman 	Defenseman 		21	East Grand Forks, MN
Maximilian Prazma 	Goaltender 		21	Calgary, AB
Noah Prokop 	Forward 		23	Highlands Ranch, CO; graduate transfer from Colorado College
Jake Ratzlaff 	Defenseman 		21	Rosemount, MN
Jake Sibell 	Goaltender 		23	Isanti, MN; transfer from Niagara
Jase Sofo 	Defenseman 		21	Sylvania, OH
==Roster==
As of December 28, 2023.
==Standings==
==Schedule and results==
|-
!colspan=12 style=";" | Regular Season
|-
!colspan=12 style=";" | 
==Scoring statistics==
 	F 	37	12	18 	30 	48
 	F 	36	10	17 	27 	10
 	F 	35	7 	19 	26 	12
 	C 	37	5 	18 	23 	26
 	LW 	31	13	8 	21 	4
 	RW 	29	12	9 	21 	28
 	F 	37	9 	6 	15 	6
 	C 	37	7 	6 	13 	14
 	D 	37	0 	12 	12 	26
 	RW 	31	3 	7 	10 	10
 	RW 	24	4 	5 	9 	8
 	C 	27	3 	5 	8 	16
 	D 	28	2 	6 	8 	16
 	D 	37	1 	6 	7 	47
 	D 	22	0 	7 	7 	8
 	D 	15	0 	5 	5 	6
 	RW 	20	3 	1 	4 	4
 	D/F 	24	2 	2 	4 	0
 	D 	19	1 	2 	3 	6
 	D 	37	0 	3 	3 	22
 	D 	37	0 	3 	3 	0
 	G 	24	0 	2 	2 	0
 	C/RW	3 	1 	0 	1 	4
 	C/LW	5 	1 	0 	1 	2
 	D 	18	1 	0 	1 	14
 	D 	6 	0 	1 	1 	6
 	D 	14	0 	1 	1 	2
 	G 	15	0 	1 	1 	0
Total	 	 	97	170	267	351
==Goaltending statistics==
 	24	1357:56	8 	12	2	68 	627	1	.902	3.00
 	16	852:10 	7 	8 	0	31 	372	0	.923	2.18
Empty Net	- 	30:40 	- 	- 	-	6 	- 	-	- 	-
Total 	37	2240:46	15	20	2	111	999	1	.905	2.81
==Rankings==
Poll 	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week 	Week
Poll 	Pre 	1 	2 	3 	4 	5 	6 	7 	8 	9 	10 	11 	12 	13 	14 	15 	16 	17 	18 	19 	20 	21 	22 	23 	24 	25 	26 (Final)	
USCHO.com	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	– 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	– 	NR 	
USA Today	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	– 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	
Note: USCHO did not release a poll in weeks 11 and 25.Note: USA Today did not release a poll in week 12.
==References==
Category:St. Thomas (Minnesota) Tommies men's ice hockey seasons
St. Thomas
St. Thomas