Johnnies defeat Auggies on Hockey Day

The St. John’s hockey team beat Augsburg 5-4 in overtime last weekend in a game that was a part of Hockey Day in Minnesota. The game took place in an outdoor rink in Polar Lakes Park in White Bear Township. Sophomore forward Jackson Sabo scored the game-winning goal two minutes into overtime.

“Everyone played a part in that game, and you don’t win a game like that unless everyone’s going, so it was a good team win. I just happened to be on the end of it,” Sabo said.

The players kept reiterating that this game wasn’t won because of one player’s performance; this game was won because of the team’s ability to play together. Everyone did their part in contributing to the team’s win. The opportunity in overtime wouldn’t have been possible without senior forward Nick Michel’s game-tying goal late in the third period. The goal came with one minute left in regulation while the Johnnies had their goalie pulled.

“It was a pretty surreal moment, just for the fact that it didn’t get waved off,” Michel said.

Michel was talking about the two goals that St. John’s had waved off earlier in the game. The first one came in the second period and the second one came in the third period.

“For our guys to fight through that adversity, keep playing and working hard and to come up with that goal by Jackson Sabo to get the win [that], was good for our team,” Schueller said.

Sophomore goaltender Bailey Huber made some significant saves down the stretch that kept the Johnnies in the game.

“[We] had Bailey back there basically saving us, so it doesn’t happen without him,” Michel said.

Huber saved 29 shots throughout the night, despite acknowledging the difficulty of playing on an outdoor rink at night and under the lights. This made it harder for him to see the puck and make saves because they practice and play every other game on an indoor rink. The top scorers in the game for SJU were senior forwards Auggie Moore and Jack Johnson. Moore totaled four points in the game via two goals and two assists. Johnson totaled three points in the game via one goal and two assists. Schueller grew up in White Bear Lake, so this game was even more special for him.

“It was kind of cool going back to that area, playing where I went to high school and getting to meet and see some of my old friends. It made it really cool for me,” Schueller said.

The players and Schueller mentioned the SJU faithful’s great showing. The students, alumni, Rat Pak and all the other St. John’s fans created a unique atmosphere and made the game even more meaningful for them. SJU was outshot 33-22 in the game and outscored on the powerplay 2-0, but they were still able to pull out the win in the back-and-forth contest. This was uncharacteristic of this SJU team, as they have outshot opponents 796-624 on the season. They have also outscored their opponents by a margin of 75-57.

On the other hand, one thing that matched up with SJU’s tendencies was their opponents taking more of an advantage on power play chances. Opponents have a power play conversion rate of .301, while St. John’s has a .224 power play conversion rate. St. John’s hasn’t lacked in power play chances as they have had 98 chances throughout the season compared to 73 for their opponents, yet they have scored the same amount of goals as their opponents on the power play (22). They’ll look to convert more on the power play down the stretch. The Johnnies currently have an overall record of 12-9-2 and a conference record of 8-5-1, putting them second in the MIAC standings. They are seven points back of St. Scholastica in the conference. They also sit one point ahead of Augsburg and six points ahead of Bethel.

“We have a lot of potential with this group, and I feel like we have had times [where] we’ve played at a championship level,” Moore said. “Every day is an opportunity to get better and get things dialed in.”

The Johnnies are back in action this weekend with a two-game series against St. Olaf, which will take place at the Herb Brooks National Hockey Center at 7 p.m. on Friday and 5 p.m. on Saturday at St. Olaf. These two games will wrap up St. John’s regular season as they look to carry momentum into the playoffs and make a run at a MIAC Championship.