First NCAA Tournament For St. Benedict’s Hockey Team This March

St. Ben's hockey has never made it to the NCAA tournament in the 29 years of the program until this year.  St. Ben's hockey coach Lindsay Macy joined me on WJON to talk about how they made it happen.  The Bennies defeated Hamline 4-2 on February 28 in the MIAC Tournament Semifinals before downing Gustuvus 2-1 Saturday to capture the MIAC tournament championship and to earn the automatic qualifier into the NCAA Division III tournament.

NCAA Opponent

The Bennies will open play in the tournament Saturday March 14 in Amherst, Massachusetts against #5 Amherst at 2pm.  Macy says it's "pretty special" when referring to their run through the MIAC tournament.  She says the team believed they could accomplish this and everyone was moving in the right direction.

Game Plan

Macy says the team really bought into their game plan and never waivered from it.  She says the team did the little things like blocked shots and everyone has been contributing.  Macy explains being the first Bennie hockey team to go to the NCAA tournament is important especially to the senior class.  She says the program has undergone growing pains for many years and are now seeing the hard work pay off.

Top Performers

St. Ben's is 16-7-4 this season and is led in scoring by Helena Siska with 22 points (12 goals and 10 assists), along with Presley Kraemer and Shae Stinnett with 17 points (10 games and 7 assists for each).  Lexi Baldali has started 22 of the team's 27 games in net and has a .942 save percentage with a 12-6-3 record with 2 shutdowns.

Expects Fans to Travel

Macy says the alumni and fans of Bennie hockey came out in full force during the MIAC tournament and she expects a good crowd in Massachusetts this weekend.  Macy says Amherst plays a much different style than they are used to with a very defensive oriented style with a very good goaltender.  She says their motto this season is "give us a time, give us a place and we're going to play Bennie Hockey".

If you'd like to listen to my conversation with Lindsay Macy, click below.