Johnnies prepare for Hockey Day Minnesota

The St. John’s Hockey team sits at a record of 10-7-2 (6-3-1 MIAC) through their first 19 games of the season and currently rank second in the MIAC.

“We have a really good team,” senior forward and captain Auggie Moore said. “We have really good goaltending; our depth is probably our biggest strength. We can roll four lines, probably better than any other team we play, and it wears teams down as games go on.”

The team’s depth and speed on the ice are evident in home games, where the Johnnies have won five out of seven games so far this year at Herb Brooks National Center in St. Cloud.

“Teams have a harder time packing it in against us, and we’re able to create more open scoring chances and take advantage of them,” head coach Doug Schueller said.

The Johnnies’ deep roster and speed have helped generate 35.53 shots on goal (SOG) per game, which ranks first in the MIAC. Senior forward Nick Michel has been a benefactor of this. His 13 goals rank second overall in the MIAC, and he has surpassed his goal and assist totals from last year in seven fewer games.

“He’s been fantastic. He’s obviously had the knack for the net,” Schueller said.

Michel has been performing exceptionally well on power play opportunities. Michel leads the MIAC with six power play goals on 20 shots with three assists during the one-man advantage. Scoring among the rest of the team has been mostly widespread. Four different Johnnies are tied for second on the team in goals with six each: junior forward Lewis Crosby, first-year defenseman Mason Campbell, Moore and junior forward Max Borst. Crosby has helped the team this year in many areas other than netting the puck. He ranks first on the team and fifth in the MIAC in assists while also winning a league-leading 62% of his faceoffs.

“He’s going to be out there in every important situation we have for a faceoff because of his ability to win those draws. He’s very consistent, very driven with it and works hard at getting better at it,” Schueller said. “He’s been that way since he stepped on campus; he’s just really good in faceoffs.”

Benjamin Franklin once said, “—in this world, nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” Well, it looks like he forgot defense wins games, and sophomore and first-year goaltenders Bailey Huber and Jon Howe are here to remind him. In his first season on the ice for the Johnnies, Huber has been taking advantage of the opportunity. Howe has allowed 1.77 goals per game and has a 93.1% save percentage, which rank first and third in the MIAC respectively.

“Bailey and Jon have both been good,” Moore said. “We know we can trust either of them, but Bailey [has] had some games where he’s just taken it to another level.”

Huber earned his first career shutout on Jan. 7 to complete a two-game sweep of Gustavus Adolphus on their home rink. A week later, he got the win against the 10th ranked team in the nation at the time, UW-Stevens Point, earning him MIAC Men’s Hockey Defensive Player of the Week with a career-high 41 saves. On Dec. 9, Howe took the net on a night that was set to be special: Senior Night. He earned a first career shutout of his own in a dominant 6-0 victory against Concordia-Wisconsin.

“We have two good goalies right now that we’re really excited about and that have both been playing really well when they’ve been in the net,” Schueller said.

This was not the only special outcome in the game. Thirteen minutes and 32 seconds into the first period, Moore scored his third goal of the game, securing himself a hat trick.

“I’d never had one in my career, actually, and [it is] kind of funny that I got a couple of good chances in that game and was able to do it on Senior Night,” Moore said. “It was fun, and it was just good to have my parents there for that.”

Senior defenseman Joe Raleigh netted the first goal of his collegiate career late in the third period to cap off the night.

“Overall, I thought our Senior Night really worked out well in the fact that we had some success, and some seniors had some success, so it was great,” Schueller said.

More recently, the Johnnies won their first of two games against Hamline on Jan. 19 and Jan. 21 and lost the second at home, despite outshooting their opponent 49-14. St. John’s gave up two of the four goals scored by Hamline on power plays in the 4-1 loss. The Johnnies rank last in the MIAC in penalty kill percentage and last in penalties per game. Another area the Johnnies have struggled in has been the power play.

“This past weekend with Hamline was a little frustrating, and we outplayed them both nights, but we didn’t get the win down there,” Schueller said. “But we’re playing well as a team. We’re putting a lot of shots on net, and we have some pretty good depth. So, things are going good.”

The next game on the schedule is on Hockey Day Minnesota on Jan. 27 in White Bear Township. The game against Augsburg will be played on an outdoor rink in Polar Lakes Park.

“To me it’s just super exciting. I think playing outside feels like a totally different style of game, and it kind of changes everything,” Moore said. “You don’t really know how the conditions are going to be. It’s just going to be about who wants it more, and that’s exciting.”

With just six MIAC games to go in the regular season, the Johnnies are looking to put themselves in a good position to win the MIAC Championship and get a chance at the NCAA tournament.