Disappointing finish
Musser, Tommies fall in CCHA title game
Carsen Musser’s season with the St. Thomas men’s hockey team came to an end Friday in a 4-1 loss to Minnesota State in the CCHA Mason Cup championship game at Mayo Clinic Health System Event Center in Mankato.
The Tommies were looking to advance to the NCAA Tournament in their first year of eligibility.
It was a 1-1 game after the first period, and the Mavericks led 2-1 after two. MSU scored two goals a little more than two minutes apart in the third to secure the win. Minnesota State also won the CCHA regular season championship.
The Sherburn native made 35 saves in 56:42 on the ice. He went to the bench for an extra attacker several times in the third period, but the Mavericks did not score on the empty net. By period, Musser recorded 13, 14 and 8 saves.
It was a disappointing end to the season for the Tommies, who ended the season with a 21-12-5 record. St Thomas coach Rico Blasi said after the game that his team had not played as well as it had hoped to in the school’s biggest game of its Division I era.
“Obviously, give them credit,” Blasi said of the Mavericks. “They took us off our game. I thought we started the game off really well. But we deviated from it for some reason. And they took it to us. In these games you’ve got to be at your best. If you’re not at your best, you’re probably going to get beat. You can’t squeak one out in the championship game; everybody’s got to be on point.
“I don’t want to take anything away from them because they won the championship and they deserved it. Could we have played a little bit better and more into our game plan? Of course I’m going to say that.”
Musser was a sophomore with the Tommies. He played his freshman season with Colorado College of the NCHC. St. Thomas will be moving to the NCHC next season.
But Blasi said what UST has accomplished in its five years at the Division I level needs to be remembered.
“We lost the game,” he said, “but what I said to the team in the locker room is this: ‘Nothing I can say to you or to them is going to change the outcome of the game. Could we have played better? Yes.’ This senior class built our program. They set the standard, the identity, the culture. I love them, I’m proud of them. Win or lose, I don’t give a crap. What we do day to day is what matters to me.”
Musser had an 11-6-3 record this season with goals against average of 2.96 and .892 save percentage.
He was selected by the Arizona Coyotes (now the Utah Mammoth) in Round 6, Pick 166 in the 2023 NHL Entry Draft.
Musser has also played with Madison of the United States Hockey League the U.S. National Development U17 and U18 teams. In 2023 he had a 2-0 record with a 0.75 GAA and .947 save percentage in two games for the gold-medal winning Team USA at the IIHF Under-18 World Championship.
