CSS men’s hockey ranked inside top 10 for first time since 2014

On November 10th, 2014, the College of St. Scholastica (CSS) men’s hockey team was ranked within the top 10.

Since then, the Saints hadn’t achieved that milestone again, until Monday. Following a weekend sweep of Gustavus Adolphuss College CSS landed eighth in the USCHO’s Division III poll, thanks to a 5-0 start to this season.

Third year head coach Dave Williams, a former Saint himself, said the recognition is exciting but not something to fixate on.

“It’s definitely great to get the recognition, I think is the biggest thing. But we’re just trying to stay focused and really not let that get to our head at all and just take it game by game here.”

A few keys to their success are the Ledenkov brothers from Belarus. The seniors have posted seven points a piece, with Filimon leading the team in assists with seven.

The Saints are also powered by Mountain Iron native Jacob Seitz who has added four points so far this season.

“Going into games, we definitely have a target on our back,” said Seitz, a junior forward. “Being in that top ten number, I think teams are coming in and looking at it like they don’t really have anything to lose. But we do. We just got to go and play our game every day.”

“It’s great that people started coming to the games and recognizing us and supported us when we needed to, because we have a special group of guys,” added forward Filimon Ledenkov.

The Saints will work to protect their perfect record in a home-and-home series with St. John’s University on Thursday at St. John’s and Saturday at Mars Lakeview Arena. Both puck drops are set for 7 p.m..