![The St. Thomas Academy student section celebrated a second period goal against Andover. ] Aaron Lavinsky • aaron.lavinsky@startribune.com Andover played St. Thomas Academy in a Class 1A state tournament quarterfinal game on Thursday, March 5, 2020 at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minn.](https://arc.stimg.co/startribunemedia/TXNZERCIOT2QAPWAYBLCEYQQMI.jpg?&w=1080)
At one point this season, St. Thomas Academy was drowning in both losses and disbelief. A players' meeting was held, a commitment to one another was forged and the seeds of one of the biggest upsets in recent state tournament history were planted.
"When we were 5-7 in February or January or whenever it was, we went over to one of the guys' houses and talked everything out," said goaltender Tommy Aitken, who made 33 saves — 15 in the third period — as the ringleader of the unseeded Cadets' stunning 3-2 victory Thursday over No. 1 seed Andover (24-4-1). "We all just decided to buy in. I think that's what changed everything around."
Buy-in for the Cadets (19-8-2), the bearer of the most losses of any team entering the tournament, means five guys packing into the slot, all of them within a stick's length or so from their goaltender. Buy-in means sacrificing to block a shot.
St. Thomas Academy did all of that in engineering the first quarterfinal upset of a No. 1 seed since Lakeville South stunned Duluth East 3-2 in 2012.
"We were doing everything right; we just couldn't get the right bounces and get the puck to go in," said Gunnar Thoreson, who scored a first-period goal for the Huskies, making their first state tournament appearance.
Second-period goals by Will Soderling and Jared Wright allowed St. Thomas Academy to take the 3-2 lead, and most of the rest of the game was played in the Cadets' end. The Huskies outshot the Cadets 35-16.
"We fended them off, for sure," Eigner said. "But by no means was that our strategy."
