St. Cloud, Minn. – The Saint Benedict hockey team closed out their last home game of the season with a tough 5-2 loss to No. 9 St. Thomas tonight. (Feb. 21) With this loss, the Blazer's record has dropped to 7-17-0, while their conference record falls to 4-13-0. The Blazers will travel to St. Paul tomorrow (Feb. 22) to face off against the Tommies once again, at 2 p.m. for their final game of the season.
 
In the first period, the Tommies (16-5-3, 13-2-2 MIAC) jumped ahead to a 1-0 lead just seven minutes into the game. From there, they only needed a little over a minute before extending this lead to 2-0. The Blazers were then able to hold off St. Thomas' powerful offense for the remainder of the period. St. Thomas outshot the Blazers 17-7 in this period as Stephanie Kirk and Megan Brettingen led the Blazers with two shots each.
 
The Blazers came back and responded with a goal less than two minutes into the second period. This goal came from Siri Berg-Moberg for her fourth goal of the season and Elli Marvin captured her 10th assist of the season by setting up the goal that put the score at 2-1. Kacee Medved was also awarded her first assist of the year.
 
The Blazers then came back to tie the score at 2-2 during their second of two consecutive power plays. This goal came from Tara Frey with just over seven minutes remaining in the period. This was also Frey's fourth goal as Megan Brettingen gained her first assist of the year. 
 
From there, though, the Tommies responded with another goal to put the score at 3-2 with three minutes left in the second period. Tara Frey led the Blazers in this period with two shots as the Tommies outshot the Blazers 16-7.
 
Both teams started the third period with strong defensive play. It wasn't until halfway through the period that the Tommies scored to extend their lead to 4-2. The Blazers didn't get their first shot on net until over 11 minutes into the period. The two teams then battled back and forth with each defense outplaying the other's offense until the Tommies scored to bring their lead up to 5-2 with just under five minutes remaining in the game.  The Tommies once again outshot the Blazers in this period 21-3.
 
Dory Johnson set a new career high today gaining 49 saves. Frey and Brettingen led the Blazer offense with four shots each as the Tommies outshot the Blazers 54-17 on the night. Marvin also tied Stephanie Kirk for the team lead of 16 points after her assist tonight.