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SIOUX FALLS — Since losing captain Hunter Bischoff to a season-ending injury, the Augustana hockey team has been looking for others to fill the void.
Last weekend in particular was an examination of the Vikings’ collective toughness. Now comes an even bigger test.
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No. 18 Augustana will hit the road this weekend to close out the regular season, taking on No. 15 St. Thomas in a CCHA series with massive implications for both teams in the Mason Cup Playoffs and beyond.
The two-game series is scheduled for 7:07 p.m. Friday and Saturday at Lee and Penny Anderson Arena in St. Paul.
“It’s the guys in the room. There’s a care. There’s a togetherness,” Vikings coach Garrett Raboin said. “You see leaders. … We’ve talked about the second half as being player-led when adversity hits. The players, they need to come together and dig in.
“It’s still early, but hopefully the dig-in is showing itself now.”
With seven points separating the top five teams in the CCHA, the race for home ice in the conference playoffs remains entirely up for grabs.
Augustana (19-10-3) is currently sitting in third place in the league standings with 45 points, while Michigan Tech is in first place with 48 points.
However, this weekend is the Vikings’ final opportunity to capture points. The other eight teams in the conference will close out the regular season next weekend.
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Exact scenarios will depend on how the rest of the conference shakes out, but here’s a simple breakdown of what’s at stake for Augustana this weekend in the CCHA:
Furthermore, Augustana will also have an opportunity this weekend to improve its No. 17 ranking in the NCAA Percentage Index (NPI), which is the newly implemented official system for selecting and seeding teams for the NCAA tournament.
At No. 13, the Tommies are currently the CCHA’s highest-ranked team in the NPI, while Minnesota State (No. 16), MTU (No. 18) and Bowling Green (No. 19) are all positioned near the Vikings on the bubble.
“It doesn’t get much closer,” Raboin said. “It’s fun, though. It’s so good for these young men who are trying to develop in college hockey. It’s so good for the fans. Our league’s needed this. You see the value of a program like Augustana going in the CCHA and hanging up there near the top.
“I think as you look at our league right now, it’s pretty reflective nationally of how tight it is, how these teams continue to get better, the investments more significant. I think it’s as good as it’s ever been. That’s been said a lot this year, and the finish to the regular season is going to be incredible.”
Last weekend, the Vikings came away with a home split against Bowling Green, moving them to 13-8-3 in conference play.
On Friday, the Falcons fired 27 shots on goal in the first period alone and got a power-play goal from Tyler Hotson that stood as the difference in a 1-0 win. However, Augustana bounced back in Saturday's series finale, emerging with a 4-2 triumph.
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Raboin was encouraged by the way his team played from the third period of Friday’s game through Saturday.
“You can’t go back in time in our sport,” Raboin said. “You can just hope to put your best foot forward, as cliché as it sounds, and you have to try to build something. The great thing about college hockey is there’s the two-game series in our league.
“We play back-to-back, so you have to find a way. The third period was a really good step.”
Vikings forward Brett Meerman has 26 points on the season, which is the most in a single season in the brief history of the program. The junior attacker has 13 goals and 13 assists, and his 24.5% shot conversion rate ranks third nationally among skaters who have taken 50 or more shots on goal.
Freshman Leo Bulgakov leads the Vikings with 14 goals, while junior Owen Baumgartner is pacing the blue line with 20 points (four goals, 16 assists).
Meanwhile, Josh Kotai continues to carry the load for Augustana between the pipes. The junior goalie has a 17-10-3 record with four shutouts, logging a .935 save percentage (first in CCHA) and 2.06 goals-against average (second in CCHA).
Against BGSU, Kotai turned away 74 of 77 combined shots for a .961 save percentage in the two-game series.
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“That was our Saturday meeting. I said, ‘If you want to be a premier goalie in college hockey, come to Augie because they are going to give you bonus shots like crazy,'” Raboin said. “The workload was not nearly what it was reflected on the scoreboard, but yes, they did have possession more than we wanted.
“Our game just grew as the weekend went on. That’s what you want to see anytime you take the ice.”
Positioned in second place in the CCHA standings, St. Thomas (18-9-3) is 9-2 since the start of the new year and will be coming off a week of rest when it takes the ice this weekend versus Augustana.
In the second half of the season, the Tommies are averaging 4.4 goals per game while giving up 2.5 goals per contest.
The Vikings are 3-1-1 in all-time meetings against UST, including a 4-4 tie earlier this season on Nov. 15 in which AU won the exhibition shootout at Midco Arena.
“I think that their game here the one chance we’ve played them was the best hockey game for me to watch two teams playing hockey with no restraints,” said Raboin, whose team is 5-8 on the road this season. “Systems weren’t what you took away from the game. It was skating, playmaking ability. It had that back-and-forth look that I think is the brand that I hope most teams in college hockey move to. It’s the best brand to watch for me personally, so it’s a credit to them.
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“I’m excited for our guys. It’s one of those budding rivalries. Unfortunately we’ll lose them to the NCHC next year, but we have them now.”
Tale of the tape
UST
AUG
3.8
Goals/game
2.9
2.9
Goals allowed/game
2.1
32.3
Shots/game
27.9
27.1
Shots allowed/game
31.8
26-116
PPG
20-90
21-105
PPG allowed
10-88
Now in their fifth year as a Division I program since making the leap from the Division III level in all sports, the Tommies have 13 players with double-digit points on the season.
Alex Gaffney, a graduate transfer from Harvard, leads the charge with 34 points on 16 goals and 18 assists, while third-year captain Lucas Wahlin is right behind him with 33 points, including a team-leading 18 goals.
Junior Chase Cheslock has a team-high 21 assists from the blue line for the Tommies. The 6-foot-3 defenseman was selected by the New Jersey Devils in the fifth round of the 2023 NHL Draft.
A pair of goaltenders have shared time in goal throughout the season for UST. Senior Aaron Trotter leads the way with a 7-4-1 record in 13 appearances, boasting a .913 save percentage and 2.34 GAA. Meanwhile, Carsen Musser, a sixth-round pick by the Arizona Coyotes in 2023, has posted an 8-4-1 record, 3.22 GAA and .882 save percentage in 14 starts.
The Tommies rank fifth in the CCHA in scoring defense but are No. 1 in the conference and tied for fourth-best in the country in scoring offense.
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This weekend marks the Vikings’ first-ever trip to Lee and Penny Anderson Arena, which officially opened on Oct. 24. St. Thomas is 8-5-1 on home ice in 2025-26.
“It’s good for our guys to see late in the year,” Raboin said about playing the top teams in the CCHA to close out the regular season. “As you fight through and you get in the playoffs, you’re going to run into more of that, and even then some.
“Everything just elevates, so respect for their team. … They’ve been one of the hottest teams in the country the second half, but it’s a great test for us. And I’m excited to go see what we have.”
After getting shut out for the third time this season on Friday, the Vikings displayed a true sense of urgency in Saturday’s game.
Providing the biggest spark was sophomore Nace Langus, who slotted in at center on the third line and finished with three assists on the night.
It’s been an up-and-down second year of college hockey for the native of Ljubljana, Slovenia, who had high expectations following a rookie season in which he amassed 16 points.
Langus was battling through an injury in the first half of the season, but Raboin is hopeful that Saturday’s performance is a sign of good things to come.
“Nace spent a lot of time in the clouds this year, man,” Raboin said. “It’s a dark place to be. When you pop out of the clouds, everything changes. You feel good. You’re more confident. You hold on to pucks. You dig in a little bit more. Fifty-fifty battles start to shade your way more often.
“A credit to him, I felt for him. You can talk about confidence, but that’s just a word. There’s no potion to give to these kids.”
After the Vikings were walloped on the face-off dot Friday night, Langus won 10 of 15 draws (66.7%) on Saturday for an Augustana team that finished the game with a 54.4% win rate (31 of 57) in face-offs.
In 24 games this season, Langus has nine points on two goals and seven assists.
“He’s all heart. He’s all team,” Raboin said about Langus. “He finally just played, and that’s Nace. That is the Nace that you guys as fans and spectators of Augustana hockey, that’s the player you’re going to see more and more of as we move forward.
“It was certainly great to see him just be himself.”
Friday, Feb. 20
Saturday, Feb. 21
Team, Points, Games played
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