The Tommie women’s hockey team opens its season Oct. 4 against Post University at St. Thomas Ice Arena.
The team finished 10-26-1 overall during the 2023-2024 season and ended in the seventh spot in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association standings. This year, the preseason poll picked the Tommies to finish sixth out of eight teams.
“We want to climb the ladder in our league because we know if we do, we’re going to be a nationally-ranked team,” coach Joel Johnson said.
St. Thomas started its season with an exhibition against the University of Manitoba at home on Sept. 29 and won 9-1.
Last season, the Tommies’ opponents doubled their goals and took shots at the goal 353 more times cumulatively. Johnson said he liked what he saw offensively on Sept. 29.
“I really liked our puck possession. As I said to our team before, I like their shooter’s mentality. We were playing a tired team and we took advantage of that,” Johnson said.
The increased offense was helped by the six first-years added to this season’s roster, according to Johnson.
“Our incoming class just really added scoring depth. We’ve had larger roster sizes before but we lacked in some key areas, so our incoming players, freshman this year, are really doing a great job, both with scoring and I’d say goaltending,” Johnson said. “… They’re having an immediate impact on the ice.”
The Tommies also added junior forward Sadie Lindsay, who is donning a purple jersey after three seasons with the University of Minnesota.
The new additions are joining a roster highlighted by last year’s standout sophomore Ella Boerger. Boerger finished last season with a team-high 24 points on 11 goals and 13 assists and three WCHA rookie of the week nods.
“There’s just more high-quality hockey players that are making their way into all these college programs, ours included, which is just going to raise everybody’s competitive level and raise everybody’s ability to play against one another and find success,” Johnson said.
Johnson said he’s already recruiting for next season.
“Recruiting is all about trying to cast a vision for what it’s going to look like for a young person to enroll and be a Tommie athlete,” Johnson said.
Johnson says he often takes walks by the new arena to envision what the future of the program looks like to him.
“What I see when I walk around and cast a vision for myself is us playing in front of big crowds and thriving in the WCHA, because I’ve seen it happen in other programs that have started in the same place we have,” Johnson said.
Adam Mueller can be reached at muel7541@stthomas.edu.