Although junior defenseman Robbie Vannelli netted two goals in Saturday night’s men’s MIAC semifinal playoff hockey game, it was not enough to hold off the Oles as St. Olaf beat the Tommies 4-3.

The top-seeded Tommies outshot the fourth-seeded Oles 33-25 but were unable to catch the bounces they needed to pull off the win.

“It was tough, we had good spurts and bad spurts. We couldn’t really catch a bounce and had a couple go against us. We fought hard, but hopefully it’s not the end of it,” Vannelli said.

The Tommies now must wait and see if they will be able to advance to the national tournament that begins later this month.

“We have to hope we can get into the NCAA tournament with our record,” senior captain Robby Philipp said. “All we can do is sit and watch the rest of the games, and hopefully we will get some luck.”

Coach Jeff Boeser said the team just didn’t have “it” against the Oles.

“We didn’t have our ‘A’ game, and they (St. Olaf) played really well. They really worked hard. They just won a lot of the little battles. I don’t think we played very well, even though we outshot them,” Boeser said.

Senior captain  Chris Hickey also gave St. Olaf a lot of credit.

“They took advantage of their bounces, and they won,” Hickey said.

After compiling the best MIAC regular season record (18-5-2), Hickey said he feels as if the team let its chance slip away.

“We had our own destiny in our own hands,and now it’s up in the air. There is a slim margin,” Hickey said. “Our whole team worked extremely hard, and I feel like we deserved a better outcome.”

With the Tommies’ future unknown, senior forward Matt Lipinski reflected on his teammates and what this year meant to him.

“Just a great group of guys. We all showed up to the rink everyday and were part of a team. It’s something that I will hold onto forever,” Lipinski said.

Jake Swansson can be reached at swan7230@stthomas.edu.