With only four regular season games left, the St. John’s Hockey team will face-off against St. Olaf and Bethel in hopes of holding their second place standing and making it to playoffs.
St. John’s is currently tied with St. Olaf for second place in the MIAC, each team having 14 points. Playoffs are a very possible reality for the Johnnies as the top five teams head to the post-season; however, competition in the MIAC has been fierce, and the difference between second and seventh place is only four points. St. Olaf (10-6-5, 6-4-2 MIAC) will pose a threat to the Johnnies (9-10-2, 7-5-0 MIAC), so the team will need to remain focused and play well these next few weeks.
“To get into playoffs, we need to win two of our last four games,” Head Coach Doug Schueller said. “If we win three or four, we have a good chance at finishing in second place. We need to get a minimum of splits with these two teams.”
With the MIAC competition tightening, the Johnnies see this as motivation for finishing their season strongly.
“There are still a lot of possibilities that can happen. We are in the drivers seat, so we control our own destiny,” junior Captain Michael Palmiscno said. “If we win all our games then we are in for sure.”
With a slow start to the season, the Johnnies had an uphill battle to get to their current position.
“Its been an up-and-down season, but we are playing well at the right time,” Schueller said. “Winning six out of the last seven games has been good for us. It’s boosting our confidence. We are peaking at the right time.”
While the team is excited at the prospects of playoffs, they understand that if they lose concentration, they could lose their opportunity to continue into the post season.
“We have had numerous games when we have had the lead and then we get happy and we lose our focus and it’s hard to come back from that,” Schueller said. “We learned that we need to keep going and keep scoring goals. Bury teams more and make sure that you finish them off instead of giving them hope that they can come back.”
The Johnnies hope the fundamentals of the game will render wins in upcoming games.
“Simple passing, winning faceoffs, taking shots, checks – all the little things will add up to big things,” Schueller said. “If we focus on the little things, we will not have to remind ourselves of the playoffs because playoffs will happen for us.”
Graduating six seniors last year, the team has seen significant contributions coming from younger players,
“All first-years have stepped up in their own way,” Sophomore Trent Johnson said. “John Haeg, our leading scorer, is close to the top of the MIAC in points, especially for first-years.”
Additionally, Sophomore Josh Gross has found his place on the team scoring six goals for a total of 18 points so far this season.
“Gross played maybe 10 games and now he is our second leading scorer. He has had to set up big,” Palmiscno said.
Now the team is looking forward to Friday night: their first game of the series against St. Olaf.
“Not sure how it’s going to play out,” senior forward Conor Rooney said. “We will just have to stay focused and keep doing what we’re doing. We haven’t made playoffs in my career, so it’s uplifting. It’s motivating to play well to get a good seed and even just make the playoffs.”