By: Ross Suitor
This weekend, St. Lawrence University Men’s hockey took on the Bulldogs of Yale, as well as Brown College. SLU had home ice advantage as both games were played at Appleton Arena. The Saints have been on a hot streak as of late, beating Dartmouth and Harvard away last weekend. The Saint’s successful weekend began with a clash against 13th-ranked Yale. The only goal of the first period came from SLU forward Tommy Thompson at 11:53, who got the rebound from a shot taken Pat Doherty and slotted the puck past Alex Lyon, the net minder for Yale. The Bulldogs and Saints put on an entertaining second period with Yale, tying the game at 1 a piece at the 7:20 mark. Kyle Hayton, St. Lawrence freshman goaltender, stopped goal scorer Mike Doherty’s initial shot, but could not keep out his rebound, giving Doherty his 7th goal of the season. Both teams recorded 13 shots on target in the second period. As the game hit the third period, both teams looked determined for the win. Matt Killian gave Yale their first lead of the night at 8:19, managing to put to puck past Hayton from point blank due to a scramble in front of the net. The Saints did not give up as Thompson got his second of the match with just 1:13 remaining in the 3rd. The Saint’s forward shot the puck from a tough angle along the goal line just after a turnover in the bulldog’s zone. The puck found the back of the net and the Saints managed to force overtime. With momentum on their side, SLU center, junior Brian Ward, took a shot seeing chaos in front of the net. Freshman Mike Marnell deflected the shot onto a Yale defender in front of the net, which left Lyon defenseless and the puck finding the net for the 5th and final time of the game. Both goaltenders played well as Hayton recorded 28 saves, almost matching Lyon’s 29.
Using the momentum of their win the previous night, the Saints took on Brown in a dominating performance. SLU came out flying as they took a 1-0 lead in the first period, which consisted of a beautiful over-the-net pass from Junior Sean McGovern that found a calm Christian Horn ‘17 1 on 1 with Brown goalie Tim Ernst. Horn beat Ernst and gave St. Lawrence a vital lead, as neither team had shown control of the game up to that point. Brown could not find an answer to stopping the Saints offense as Marnell, hero of the Yale game, found the net again at the 10:29 mark of the second. The Saints gave themselves a nice cushion at 7:03 in the third period as sophomore Gavin Bayreuther ripped a shot that got deflected by Joe Sullivan ‘18 to force the puck past Ernst, giving Saints a 3-0 lead. The Bears of Brown, however, did get a goal of their own as Nick Lappin smashed a shot past Hayton at 9:10 into the third, making the saints continue to grind to hold their lead. Shortly after the Bears got some momentum from their goal, Saints senior Gunnar Hughes converted on their power play at 10:25 to make the tally 4-1 in favor of the Saints. Both teams got another goal, as Joey de Concilys, defenseman for Brown made it 4-2 with 4:34 remaining in the game. Again, the Saints answered, but this time it only took 14 seconds after conceding to find the net again. Justin Bruckel ‘15 assisted sophomore Woddy Hudson to give the Saint his fourth goal of the year. The game ended 5-2, giving the Saints their 5th win in their last 6 games. Hayton completed the night with 29 saves, as opposed to Ernst recording 37 saves for Brown. The Saints are now 13-10-2 overall and 9-4-0 in conference play.