Last Saturday’s CCHA semifinal game between St. Thomas and Augustana was exactly what you want a playoff game to be: intense, tight-checking, the need to battle for every puck and patch of open ice. A tightly-contested affair between two evenly matched, well-coached teams.
This was a big-time hockey game between two teams with aspirations to play in a lot more of them.
Augustana is in just its third season as a program, and second as part of the CCHA – finishing in second place in the regular season for each of them. Their current NPI ranking of 16th has them squarely on the NCAA tournament bubble for an at-large berth.
St. Thomas is in its fifth season of Division I hockey after elevating from Division III. They will play for the conference tournament championship for the second consecutive season and are ranked 14th nationally. The Tommies are playing their final season in the CCHA before joining the NCHC next season.
Two veteran teams with experience, depth, and versatile rosters that allow coaches to mix and match lines game-to-game, or in-game, with confidence that they’ll hit on something that works. Up and down each lineup, some skaters can succeed in matchup minutes or simply provide quality, detail-oriented shifts.
Ultimately, St. Thomas emerged with a 2-1 victory, remaining in control of their destiny as they advanced to the CCHA championship game with an automatic bid to the NCAA hockey tournament on the line. Augustana, on the other hand, will have to watch and wait to learn its fate.
“We’re gonna get back to Sioux Falls and act as if we’re alive until someone tells us we’re not,” said head coach Garrett Raboin.
After two scoreless periods, St. Thomas was the first to find the scoreboard when Vegas draft pick Lucas Van Vliet scored. Edina native Nick Williams set him up after the defenseman turned a neutral zone turnover into a quick counter-attack.
Augustana evened it up just 57 seconds later when Owatanna’s Owen Baumgarter poked home a rebound during a goalmouth scramble.
With just over nine minutes to play, Alex Gaffney scored the game-winner for St. Thomas with a quick shot off a faceoff win by Woodbury native Lucas Wahlin. Gaffney scored on Vikings netminder Josh Kotai, one of the best goaltenders in college hockey. The shot appeared to have ramped up off a defender’s stick.
Tommies goalie Carsen Musser, the former Fairmont Cardinal, held the fort down the stretch to preserve the victory and send St. Thomas to Saturday’s championship game against Minnesota State Mankato.
It was fitting that Minnesota players had their fingerprints all over this game because both teams have developed pipelines that tap the State of Hockey’s talent pool for a consistent supply of players.
St. Thomas has 16 Minnesota natives on its roster and plenty more local talent on the way. The same goes for Augustana, which has 12 Minnesotans and more en route.
Minnesotans fuel Tommies from top to bottom
For St. Thomas, it all starts with Lucas Wahlin, their captain. The senior and former Hill-Murray Pioneer is a bit of a late bloomer who spent nearly a full season in Tier III juniors before eventually working his way up the junior ranks and into Division I college hockey, where he’s become one of the best all-around players in the nation.
The CCHA Defensive Forward of the Year is a phenomenal two-way player who hounds pucks, attacks puck carriers to take away space, backchecks like a madman to deny transition opportunities, and eliminates open players in front of the net with positioning, leverage, and timing.
Offensively, he is devastating in straight lines with speed and decisive attacks into open ice. He works effectively in motion throughout the offensive zone and has a heavy shot fueled by a quick release.
When asked about Wahlin’s impact after Saturday’s game, Raboin said, simply, “Fantastic player. I’m sure those guys over there will tell you how much he means to their program.”
Rico Blasi, Wahlin’s coach at St. Thomas, did just that, saying that Wahlin “has carried us for the last four years. Lucas (and linemate Alex Gaffney) love that kind of [pressure], and when I see that, I just keep playing them.”
The undrafted Wahlin has combined with Gaffney and another Minnesotan, Roseville’s Ryan O’Neill, to form one of the top lines in college hockey. Wahlin and Gaffney are in the top 20 nationally in CHIP (College Hockey Individual Point Value), and Wahlin is 8th in the country in expected goals, while producing an actual stat line of 21 goals and 18 assists in 35 games played. Each of them averages 20 minutes of ice time a game.
O’Neill provides a perfect complement for the two-star forwards. The steady senior is an efficient distributor and an effective facilitator in developing plays, while also providing puck support all around the ice.
“I think our team really feeds off our line’s energy,” said Wahlin, “and if we’re going, the team really gets our forecheck going, gets our breakouts cleaner. So, I think we kind of have that pressure, but I always say that pressure is definitely a privilege, and we want to honor it.”
Helping to further handle that pressure is a trio of Minnesotans on defense; juniors Chase Cheslock (Rogers), Williams, and Mason Poolman (East Grand Forks) all play over 17 minutes a night for a St. Thomas team that isn’t afraid to play six defensemen for most of a game. Each plays on a different pairing and brings a different element.
Cheslock is the New Jersey Devils’ 5th-round pick in 2023. He’s also UST’s top defenseman, and it doesn’t take long to see why. The 6-foot-3, 205-pound righty is a physical, mobile puck mover. His ability to change direction and glide laterally while keeping his torso towards the play makes him extremely difficult to beat as a defender and enables him to quickly see and capitalize on passing lanes when he has the puck on his stick.
Williams, who missed the previous five games with an injury, has been the same player since he was a sophomore at Edina: a smooth skater, poised puck mover with intelligence and situational awareness. “It was great to have [him] back…his calmness and savvy back there,” Blasi said.
And then there’s Musser, the sophomore goaltender and Utah Mammoth draft pick who emerged from a tandem situation with senior Aaron Trotter to become the starter down the stretch.
“Unbelievable,” said Gaffney. “Throughout these playoffs and the regular season, he’s made huge saves for us and bailed us out many times.”
When describing Musser’s play, Blasi said that the 6-foot-4 goaltender “was excellent. He controlled the rebounds, [and] saw the puck really well from the beginning. He gave us an opportunity to settle into the game when they pushed. He plays the puck really well, which helps our D corps.”
Other Minnesotans are playing key roles up and down the Tommies’ lineup.
Former Andover High standout Charlie Schoen is just a quality hockey player who understands his identity and plays to it well. The senior transfer from Arizona State is an intelligent, reliable two-way forward and playmaker who uses hockey sense and a smooth stride to get to spots on both sides of the puck. Blasi is comfortable deploying him against other teams’ top lines.
Sophomore forwards Dylan Godbout (Woodbury, and Wahlin’s former teammate at Hill-Murray) and senior Jake Braccini provide speed and depth scoring with 14 and 22 points, respectively. Meanwhile, senior Luc Laylin (St. Michael) and freshman Attila Lippai (St. Paul) are forwards capable of providing reliable minutes up and down the lineup.
Third-string goaltender William Ingemann (Plymouth) provided a valuable stopgap early in the season, going 3-1-1 over five starts as Musser and Trotter struggled to find their footing.
Lastly, senior defenseman Carson Peters (Minneapolis) is an experienced player who can be trusted to slot in as reliable depth. Meanwhile, freshman forwards Sam Ranallo (Rogers) and Joshua Guiliani (Maple Grove) are quality players who could become key contributors in future seasons.
There are plenty more Minnesotans on the way for St. Thomas; forward Jackson Potulny, son of former Minnesota Gopher star Grant, will join the team next year. Defensemen Bode Laylin (Luc’s brother) and Joshua Toll (Rosemount), along with forwards Drew Roelofs (Mound) and Henry Lechner (Bloomington), will join in 2027. Meanwhile, forwards Owen Corkish (Cottage Grove) and Casey Vandertop (Edina), plus defenseman Henry Peterson (Duluth), are slated to arrive in 2028.
From the State of Hockey to Sioux Falls
Like St. Thomas, Augustana’s leadership is Minnesota-made. Unfortunately for the Vikings, they have been without their captain and leader, Cohasset native Hunter Bischoff, a former Grand Rapids standout who suffered a season-ending shoulder injury in early February.
In his place, Hayden Hennen, a defenseman from Hallock, Minn., has elevated his leadership status. The 6-foot-4, 191-pound junior has played big minutes all season, averaging a whopping 25:27 minutes of ice time per game. The 23-year-old leads Augustana in shots on goal and also has the highest CHIP value on the team.
Beyond that, he’s an intelligent player and a calming presence for the Vikings, one that plays in all situations and one Raboin can trust to make the right play. Hennen has solid mobility for a defender of his size and a powerful shot. On the defensive end, he uses his size well to establish body positioning and defend with timing and a strong stick.
The former Kittson County Central star has been there from the start for the Vikings. He’s “part of a pioneer group doing things for the first time in programs’ history,” said Raboin. “They opened this door and walked through it.”
Helping open that door further for the Vikings is the smooth-skating, offensively gifted Baumgartner, the team’s other top defenseman, who averages 23:00 minutes per game, is third on the team with .67 points per game and first with 4.87 shot attempts per game. The 5-foot-10 lefty excels at creating or finding passing lanes and then exploiting them with accurate, well-timed passes.
Baumgartner was creating offense all night on Saturday, and his goal was the perfect example of what he offers. He evaded a forechecker in his own end and then sliced into the heart of the defense on an end-to-end rush, after which he continued to the net to deposit a rebound.
Baumgartner’s defensive partner is former Grand Rapids star Easton Young, another mobile skater with offensive chops. The sophomore averages nearly 19 minutes per game and is an excellent distributor, dangerous when walking the blue line in the offensive zone.
Sophomore center Joey DelGreco, another Grand Rapids product, has 13 points in his past 18 games and is a speedy playmaker and trusted two-way player with whom Raboin has mixed-and-matched wingers this season. His 18:23 minutes of ice time per game is third among forwards for Augustana.
The rest of Augustana’s Minnesota contingent contributes to the Vikings’ deep, well-rounded roster in different ways.
Sophomore Tyler Hennen, Hayden’s younger brother and a 2023 Mr. Hockey finalist, and senior Ben Troumbly, a former state tournament star at Greenway, bring skating and pace to the forward group.
Seniors Will Svenddal (Minneapolis) and Quinn Rudrud (Farmington) are part of the original core that helped launch Augustana to where it is now. At the same time, a trio of sophomores has a chance to help elevate the program even farther in the coming seasons. Defenseman Carter Theissen (Plymouth) played 23 games this season, while forward Garrett Drotts (another Grand Rapids native) and goaltender Christian Manz (Blaine) bided their time and slotted in as needed.
Speaking of the coming seasons, Augustana has its own crop of Minnesotans coming down the pipeline.
Next year’s group is headlined by 2026 Mr. Hockey winner Tyler Bergeson from Moorhead, and also features defensemen Erick Comstock (a Salol native and former star at Warroad), Noah Mannausau (Bemidji), and Ryan Whiterabbit (Mahtomedi), along with forward Health Nelson (Lino Lakes). 2027 will bring defenseman Teddy Lechner (brother to St. Thomas recruit Henry) and forwards Brock Cheslock (brother to St. Thomas’s Chase), Caleb Pittsley (Edina), and Cade Sherman (Rosemount).