Hockey | 02/23/2022

Seniors Annika Brodt and Zoe Culshaw-Klein were 1 year old the last – and only – time the College of Saint Benedict hockey team played a postseason contest.
 
Head coach Nick Thibault was only 12.
 
So everyone associated with the Bennies program understands how big it will be when CSB takes the ice to face Saint Mary's in the first round of the MIAC playoffs at 2 p.m. Saturday at Saint Mary's Ice Arena in Winona (Minnesota).
 
It marks the Bennies' first appearance in the conference playoffs since 2001-02.
 
"This has been a long time coming," said Brodt, a Mounds View (Minnesota) High School graduate who has a team-best seven goals and seven assists for CSB (6-7-1 MIAC, 10-11-1 overall) this season.
 
"The goal since we all came in here four years ago has been to make the playoffs. Now it's finally happening and we want to make the most of the opportunity."
 
The Bennies enter the tournament as the No. 6 seed. In previous years, that would have left them just outside of the playoff field. But because of the impact of COVID-19 on this season's schedule, the MIAC expanded the five-team bracket to include all teams.
 
Despite having three conference games canceled due to COVID, CSB came into the final weekend of the regular season in fifth place. So the Bennies were contending, even if the traditional playoff format had been in use, and their 10 wins mark only the seventh time in the program's 25-year history that they have reached double-digits in victories.
 
Which shows progress is clearly being made under Thibault, who took over as head coach in 2018 – the same year Brodt, Culshaw-Klein and fellow seniors Julia Pias and Maggie Gilchrist first arrived on campus.
 
"There is a special bond there," said Thibault, a former St. Cloud (Minnesota) Cathedral High School standout who played junior hockey for the Granite City Lumberjacks and later served as head coach of the Cathedral girls' soccer team and the St. Cloud Icebreakers girls' hockey program (a co-op between St. Cloud Cathedral, Apollo and Tech) before coming to Saint Benedict.
 
"They're our first four-year class. Even though we didn't recruit them originally, we've been through a lot together these last few seasons. They've helped put us on the trajectory we're on now."
 
Three of those four seniors – Culshaw-Klein, Brodt and Pias – played summer hockey together in high school, and Brodt and Culshaw-Klein have known each other since eighth grade when they were coached by their fathers at the U-14 level.
 
"We talked about that before we each decided to come here," said Culshaw-Klein, a Tartan (Minnesota) High School graduate who has three goals and six assists this season. "We said 'Why don't we go in there and try to see what we can do to help turn the program around.'
 
"It's been really fun having each other here to share this with the past four years."
 
And there is still hockey to be played. Saint Mary's (9-5-2, 12-9-2) is the No. 3 seed, but the teams split their regular-season series Nov. 19-20 in Winona. The Cardinals won the first game 2-1, but CSB rallied to win the second 4-1.
 
Pias had three assists in that game and Brodt had one.
 
"We're all really excited to get the chance to compete in the postseason," Brodt said. "Especially the seniors because we know this is our last year together and we want to keep it going as long as we can."
 
"The MIAC has been so close all year," Culshaw-Klein added. "We feel like we have as much chance as anyone. We know we can play with Saint Mary's because we've done it before. So we're going to go down there and try to play our best hockey.
 
"It would mean even more if we could get the first playoff win in school history," she continued. "That would be a really big deal."