After guiding the College of Saint Benedict hockey team to its best season in nearly 20 years in 2019-20, Nick Thibault and his team had to adapt to ever-changing schedules and circumstances in 2020-21 due to the COVID19 pandemic.
In his fourth season with the program in 2021-22, Thibault looks to get the Bennies back on track and build on the momentum he helped his team gain two seasons ago.
Thibault's third season was cut short thanks to the ongoing COVID19 pandemic, and was competed from late January through March 13. In the team’s first game of the season on Jan. 30 – and its first game since February 2020 – sophomore goalie Ally Frantzick recorded a career-best 46 saves against Hamline.
In his first two seasons, Thibault is 18-33-5 overall and 10-27-4 in the MIAC.
In 2019-20, Thibault guided CSB to an 11-12-1 record – the most wins for the team since 2001-02, and just the sixth time in program history that the team recorded double-digit wins. Saint Benedict also finished the year 6-12 and tied for seventh in the MIAC. Six marked the most conference wins for the Bennies since 2014-15. CSB finished the year with five shutouts – tied for the most in program history.
Thibault was named CSB’s head hockey coach in June 2018 after spending three years as the head coach of two different high school sports. Thibault, a St. Cloud Cathedral High School alum and 2014 St. Cloud State grad, served as the head coach for the St. Cloud Cathedral girls’ soccer program and the St. Cloud Icebreakers girls’ hockey team from 2015-16 through 2017-18.
Under Thibault’s guidance, the Icebreakers went from 8-15-2 overall in 2014-15 to 18-6-1 and a second-place conference finish in his first year at the helm in 2015-16, and the team won 17 games in each of his next two seasons. He finished 54-22-4 in three seasons as head coach.
In his time with the Cathedral soccer team, Thibault took the team from a sub-.500 program to an undefeated conference championship team. In his first season in 2015, Cathedral finished 13-0-2 – the first undefeated season in program history – and won the conference title. In three seasons, he went 34-15-3 overall and 25-5 in conference play at Cathedral.
Thibault, who received a Bachelor of Elective Studies from SCSU in 2014, received an MBA from Grand Canyon University in May 2018. He played hockey for the Granite City Lumberjacks in the 2007-08 season. Thibault lives in St. Cloud.
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| Year |
Overall |
MIAC |
| 2018-19 |
7-14-2 (.348) |
4-12-2 Ninth |
| 2019-20 |
11-12-1 (.458) |
6-12-0 T-Seventh |
| 2020-21 |
0-7-2Â |
0-3-2 Eighth |
| Totals |
18-33-5 (.321) |
10-27-4 (.243) |
Thibault's Milestones:
1st Victory - Oct. 26, 2018 Chatham University
