St. Thomas is one of the oldest ice hockey programs in the nation, predating even
Minnesota, having played their first varsity game in the 1920–21 season. That year St. Thomas, along with six other small
Minnesota colleges, formed the
Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference and began playing one another in many sports. Over the course of the first sixty five years, St. Thomas was one of the better teams in the conference but it became the leading program once
Terry Skrypek arrived in 1987. In his 23 years with the program, Skrypek won 13 conference championships, 9 conference tournament titles and reached the NCAA Division III championship game twice. In total during its time as a Division III program, the St. Thomas had more wins than any other program with 1,164 victories over 96 seasons. The Tommies won 34 conference titles, made 17 NCAA Tournament appearances and were twice national runners-up. In 2019 the
MIAC took the unprecedented step of removing St. Thomas from its membership because of concerns about “athletic competitive parity.” Because the removal affected all sports and was effective at the end of the 2020–21 season, St. Thomas had time to decide what it would do next. The men's ice hockey program was given the green light to jump directly to the
Division I level in July 2020. Before the end of the month, the seven teams who had previously announced their intention to restart the
CCHA with the
2021–22 season voted unanimously to accept the Tommies as the eighth member of the conference. between St. Thomas and
Air Force in 2025 Before the 2021–22 season, St. Thomas hired
Rico Blasi to be their new head coach and bring them into their Division I era. The Tommies' first few seasons in Division I were rough, with the team only managing three wins in their first year. The Tommies would take their first step forward in the 2023–24 season, finishing 2nd in the CCHA, though they would be upset in the first round by 7th-seeded
Lake Superior State. In the 2024–25 season, the Tommies finished with their first winning record in Division I, making it all the way to the
CCHA Tournament Championship, before losing 2–4 to
Minnesota State. In the 2025–26 season, St. Thomas will open the new
Lee and Penny Anderson Arena, replacing their current venue,
St. Thomas Ice Arena, one of the smallest rinks in Division I hockey at the time. The arena will officially host its first hockey game on October 24, 2025, against
Providence. Additionally, the 2025–26 season marks the Tommies' first season of full Division I eligibility, and the Tommies last season in the CCHA, before departing for the
NCHC in the 2026–27 season. ==Season-by-season results==