Saturday’s series finale at Bowling Green started off well for the 15th-ranked St. Thomas men’s hockey team, but it fizzled fast.
Alex Gaffney scored his 17th goal of the season to put the visitors on the board just 56 seconds after puck drop, but that turned out to be the only offense of the night as the Tommies fell 3-1 to the Falcons in Ohio.
After the hosts were penalized for a crosscheck just 12 seconds into the contest, Gaffney sent a laser past Bowling Green goaltender Jacob Steinman to swiftly put St. Thomas on top. Unfortunately for the Tommies, Steinman wasn’t beaten again. He made 31 saves as the Falcons knotted the game at 1-all by the end of the first.
The hosts added two more goals in the second period past St. Thomas netminder Aaron Trotter — who made 20 saves — to skate away with the series split.
It was just the second loss in 11 games since the calendar flipped to 2026 for the Tommies (18-9-3 overall, 15-5-2 CCHA) and the first non-shootout win for Bowling Green (15-7-6, 12-5-3).
The loss slashed the St. Thomas’ lead atop the CCHA standings was slashed to just two points over Michigan Tech (20-10-2, 15-5-2), who wrapped up a weekend sweep of the CCHA’s third-position team, Augustana (18-9-3, 12-7-3) with a 4-3 victory on Saturday.
Augustana is next up on the Tommies’ schedule, with the Vikings coming to St. Paul for a two-game series that begins at 7:07 p.m. Friday at the Lee & Penny Anderson Arena. The series will be broadcast on CCHA TV.
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