College Hockey – Tommies heads into weekend series against No. 5 Minnesota

St. Thomas and the Gophers are building a cross-city hockey rivalry. This weekend, another small step will be taken to heighten the rivalry in a home-on-home series between the two schools.

Friday night's first game is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. at Mariucci Arena in Minneapolis. Saturday's second game will be at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul and will be hosted by St. Thomas. Game two is scheduled to begin at 8:07 p.m

***Click on the video box above to hear full comments from Rico Blasi, Lucas Wahlin and Matthew Gleason from St. Thomas.***

Rico Blasi is entering his third season as head coach of the Tommies.

“I think you want to be on some kind of ledge,” Blasi told KSTP’s Chris Long. “I think after playing against them in the past and these guys know each other so well, it's just a matter of coming out and playing,” Blasi said of facing the Gophers.

St. Thomas is coming off a bye week to start the season after winning a home series against the Vermont Catamounts. Their game Friday night will be their first away game at Saint Thomas Ice Arena. Second-year defenseman Mason Poolman is the Toms' top point scorer with four points and three goals.

The Gophers flawlessly defeated the Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs 7-5, 5-1 at Amsoil Arena in Duluth. Their only loss this season was a 2-1 overtime loss to nationally ranked Omaha in Las Vegas at Ice Breaker 2024.

(The Minnesota and St. Thomas athletic departments contributed information to this article.)