Reusse: Rico Blasi and St. Thomas battling MSU Mankato for CCHA title

The first view of St. Thomas as a Division I men’s hockey program for many occurred on Jan. 22, 2022, with the Tommies visiting Minnesota State Mankato as part of the Hockey Day in Minnesota television schedule.

The puck drop was scheduled for 4:30 p.m. on an outdoor ice sheet at Blakeslee Stadium, the rundown excuse for a football venue that still houses the Mavericks’ Division II juggernaut.

It was a Saturday in late January, and it started snowing in Mankato, and the act of breathing from the spectators added a cloud to the proceedings.

It looked very uncomfortable on TV.

“Our guys loved it,” Tommies coach Rico Blasi said. “We had a roster of Division III recruits against a Mankato team that was going to play for the national championship, and we played our hearts out.”

The Tommies had been outscored 14-0 in two games vs. MSU Mankato in November. They lost 5-1 two nights earlier at home, and the score was 7-1 in the outdoor mismatch.

At the end of that first D-I season, St. Thomas was 3-32-1 and MSU Mankato was 38-6, beating the Gophers in the national semis before losing to Denver 5-1 in the title game.

Three years later, the Mavericks are still solid if not mighty, but three years of Blasi and his staff recruiting for D-I has closed the chasm between programs to this point:

St. Thomas will be traveling to Mankato on Friday night to play for the CCHA playoff title. The Mavericks already have the guaranteed conference berth in the 16-team NCAA tournament; the Tommies are serving a final year of transitional ineligibility for the postseason.

MSU Mankato’s advantage vs. St. Thomas in the regular season was 2-1-1 in results and 11-9 in goals.

“You know what’s interesting for St. Thomas?” said Joel Maturi, the former Gophers athletic director. “In basketball, they can make it to the tournament and imagine winning a game, maybe even a Sweet Sixteen.

“But hockey’s a different world. The odds are long, but St. Thomas can imagine some day winning a national title.”

Maturi was contacted about being the athletic director to hire a 27-year-old Blasi at Miami (Ohio) in 1999, after Mark Mazzoleni resigned to go to Harvard.

“To be honest, Rico was my fourth choice,” Maturi said. “I was the AD at Denver before Miami, and Rico was the young assistant for George Gwozdecky. I knew he was a ‘pistol,’ but Mark Johnson was my first choice and turned me down. Mel Pearson did, too, and then Bob Daniels at Ferris State.

“So, we hired Rico. You know what? Fourth-choice 27-year-olds might have been my best hires — Rico at Miami, and Jessica Allister in softball for the Gophers."

Blasi had been an undersized, productive forward at Miami in the ’90s. Our Gophers guy Bob Motzko was an assistant there.

“Rico was a good player, and great on the power play,” Motzko said. “Rico, Chris Bergeron, Bobby Marshall … we had an all-time power play with that team. My recollection is Rico having 11 power-play goals in a season.”

Blasi had a 20-season run as coach at Miami: 10 NCAA tournaments, three regular-season titles in the CCHA when Michigan, Michigan State and Ohio State were in the league. Miami slipped when it moved to the new NCHC and Blasi was fired after the 2018-19 season.

Bergeron replaced him. He was fired last season and Miami was 0-23-1 in the NCHC this season.

Ah, Rico? “No comment,” he said.

OK, coach, but you did go to back-to-back Frozen Fours there.

“We don’t talk about one of those,” he said.

The 2009 postseason: As the fourth seed in the West Regional, Miami upset Denver and Minnesota Duluth in Minneapolis. The RedHawks defeated another upstart, Bemidji State, in the national semifinals. And then they blew a two-goal lead in the final minute to heavily favored Boston U., and lost in overtime.

“I know what it’s like to have a two-goal lead in the third period of the championship game and get beat in overtime,” Motzko said. ”All coaches have that one loss that will be with us forever."

Blasi gave the label “The Brotherhood” to his Miami program.

At St. Thomas, he has a group of players called “The Believers” — those eight current juniors who committed to the Tommies for the 2022-23 season, when a new hockey arena was still a vision, and home games were played in an old-style arena with no discernible heat in the rink.

“We have the new arena and practice facility coming next fall and it’s going to be tremendous,” Blasi said. ”For our juniors, that first D-I recruiting group, to take the leap of faith with us three years ago … St. Thomas always will appreciate that."

Forward Lucas Wahlin, Hill-Murray; forward Ryan O’Neal, St. Thomas Academy; forward Quinton Pepper, London, Ontario; forward Jake Braccini, Buffalo; forward Luc Laylin, St. Michael-Albertville; forward Cooper Gay, Benilde-St. Margaret’s; defenseman Carson Peters, Wayzata; goalie Aaron Trotter, Victoria, B.C.