Feb. 27: Four different players scored goals as Harvard University took some of the fun out of St. Lawrence University’s Senior Night activities with a 4-1 win in the final ECAC Hockey regular season game of the year for both teams..
St. Lawrence, 17-13-3 overall and 11-8-3 in league play finished fourth in the league and will join the Crimson 16-9-4, 12-7-3 with first round byes when the playoffs begin next weekend.
It was the first time in three years that the Saints have lost on Senior Night, traditionally the final home game of the regular season, but the crowd of over 2000 was treated to a fast-paced end-to-end game and most of the crowd stayed for the post-game ceremonies honoring the senior class.
The two teams combined for 62 shots and three goals in the first two periods as the game was end to end. It settled down in the third despite a number of power play opportunities and Harvard put it away when freshman Ryan Donato scored his 11th of the year on a power play with four minutes to play, giving the Crimson a 3-1 lead. Defenseman Clay Anderson added an empty net goal in the final 49 seconds for the 4-1 final.
Harvard took the early lead as it scored the only goal of the first period on a power play shot by freshman Lewis Zerter-Gossage as he picked up a rebound after a save by Saint goalie Kyle Hayton and scored with one second left in the man advantage. The goal came at 4:48 of the first and was Zerter-Gossage’s third of the year.
Senior Jimmy Vesey’s 21st of the season on a rebound after two big Hayton saves at 7:07 of the second made it a 2-0 game, but the Saints clawed back into it when freshman Jacob Pritchard scored his seventh of the year on a Saint power play at 16:18, extending his point streak to ten games.
The Saints killed off a five-minute major early in the third period and Madsen made a save on a penalty shot attempt by SLU’s Brian Ward to keep it a 2-1 game. The Saints then had 1:12 of two man power play advantage with 13:04 left, but Harvard killed it off and killed off the Saints hopes of a comeback when Donato scored his power play goal.
Hayton finished with 35 saves for the Saints as the two teams were even 39-39 in shots on goal for the game.
