Tech drops second game at St. Thomas on Saturday

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MENDOTA HEIGHTS, Minn. – Michigan Tech fell 3-1 at St. Thomas Saturday (Jan. 13) with Kyle Kukkonen scoring the lone goal for the Huskies. Tech is now 9-10-4 overall and 6-6 in the CCHA.

"St. Thomas played well and limited us on what we could do," Tech coach Joe Shawhan said. "Good for Kyle getting the monkey off his back. That certainly ignited him tonight. We played well, but I think we beat ourselves with some bad penalties and missing some of the details of the game."

After a scoreless first period, Kyle Kukkonen gave the Huskies the lead with his first goal of the season and 19th of his career 5:46 into the second. Logan Pietila controlled a bouncing puck and fed it across for a one-timer on a 2-on-1.

The Tommies quickly tied the game 48 seconds later with a long shot through traffic by Liam Malmquist.

Kash Rasmussen had a chance on a breakaway later in the second, but his shot was steered to the corner.

With 59 seconds left in the period, the Tommies took a 2-1 lead when Cooper Gay ripped in a wrist shot from the faceoff dot to the left of the crease.

St. Thomas (11-10-1, 9-5-0 CCHA) capitalized on a power play 4:07 into the third period with Mack Byers finishing off a backdoor play from Jake Braccini and Ryan O'Neill.

Kyle Kukkonen had a pair of quality chances in the third period. With 5:00 left, he was alone in front of the net and made a move to the backhand, but the shot went wide. He dangled his way into the front of the crease later but wasn't able to get a shot off.

Coach Shawhan pulled goaltender Blake Pietila with 3:30 remaining but the Huskies only generated one shot on goal.

Tech led in shots 30-23. Blake Pietila had 18 saves and made a huge stop on a shorthanded breakaway chance in the first period and later had a shot hit the crossbar behind him. The officials had a lengthy review of the play before making the obvious no goal call.

Jake Sibell earned the win with 27 saves before exiting late in the game with an injury. Aaron Trotter had a pair of saves in the final 4:55. The Tommies in front of the goalies blocked 23 shots.

Tech was 0-for-2 on the power play and 4-for-5 on the penalty kill which included three straight calls and 13 seconds of 5-on-3 in the second period.

Tech returns home next weekend for the first time in 2024, hosting Bemidji State at the John MacInnes Student Ice Arena. It will be the second meeting with the Beavers who are second in the CCHA standings.