Men's Hockey 2/16/02 -- Augsburg 3, St. Thomas 2 

BOXSCORE

ST. PAUL, Minn. (2/16/02) -- Jake Wegscheider (Sr., Little Canada, Minn./Roseville HS), Nick Murray (Sr., Bloomington, Minn./Holy Angels HS) and Brad Holzinger (Jr., North Oaks, Minn./Hill-Murray HS) scored goals as Augsburg College clinched the third seed for the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference men's hockey playoffs with a 3-2 victory over the University of St. Thomas Saturday night at the State Fair Coliseum.

Augsburg will face second-seed Gustavus Adolphus in the MIAC playoff semifinals on Friday, March 1 at the Schwan's SuperRink in Blaine, Minn. The five-game MIAC playoffs is in the first year of a five-team, single-elimination tournament.

Gustavus clinched second place in the MIAC by taking three points from St. Olaf (tie and win) in its weekend series. Concordia-Moorhead clinched the fifth seed with a sweep of St. Mary's, and will face fourth-seed St. John's in the "play-in game" on Feb. 28 at the National Hockey Center in St. Cloud, Minn. The "play-in game" winner will face MIAC regular-season champion St. Thomas, the top seed, in the other semifinal in Blaine on March 1.

Augsburg finished the regular season at 14-8-3 overall and 10-5-1 in MIAC play, gaining a split of the weekend series with St. Thomas. Augsburg has won eight of its last nine games and is 9-2-1 since the holiday break. The Tommies, ranked sixth in the latest U.S. College Hockey Online (www.uscho.com) Division III national poll and MIAC regular-season titlists, drops to 20-5-0 and 13-3-0 in the MIAC.

Augsburg jumped out to an early lead on Wegscheider's third goal of the weekend, on an assist from Brad Schwartzbauer (Jr., White Bear Lake, Minn.). Schwartzbauer assisted on all three Auggie goals.

After St. Thomas tied the game on a power-play goal from Matt Caven (Sr., Mounds View, Minn.), the Auggies took the lead for good at the 14:18 mark of the first period, on Murray's shorthanded goal from Schwartzbauer. Augsburg scored two shorthanded goals on the weekend.

Augsburg took a 3-1 lead when Holzinger found the net on assists from Schwartzbauer and Jaro Cesky (Jr., Prague, Czech Republic) at the 6:02 mark of the second period. But the Tommies cut the lead to 3-2 just 1:21 later, when Eric Wenkus (Sr., Eden Prairie, Minn.) scored the Tommies' second power-play goal of the game, on assists from Jake Searles (Sr., Centerville, Minn./Totino-Grace HS) and Tony Lawrence (Sr., White Bear Lake, Minn.).

After that, the game rested in the hands of the two goalies, Augsburg's Peter Samargia (Jr., Gilbert, Minn./Eveleth-Gilbert HS) and St. Thomas' Bob Tallarico (Jr., St. Paul, Minn./Henry Sibley HS). Samargia made 20 saves to pick up the win, while Tallarico made 26 saves in a losing effort. Augsburg outshot St. Thomas by a 29-22 margin.