A barrage of penalty calls against both sides led to a combined 83 penalty minutes in Saturday night’s non-conference men’s hockey game between No. 12/13 St. Lawrence University and No. 15 Providence College in Rhode Island. The Friars downed the Saints 6-3 with the help of four power play goals.
In total, St. Lawrence took 17 penalties for 42 minutes and Providence racked up 41 minutes on 11 infractions.
“The message was we need to stop beating ourselves,” head coach Mark Morris said. “We have to make sure there’s less friendly fire. We can be way better.”
With the loss the Saints drop to an even .500 at 3-3-0, while the Friars improve to 2-2-1.
“We played two outstanding hockey teams this weekend,” Morris added. “Credit them with a strong push and for capitalizing on some chances.”
The Saints got on the board first with senior Drew Smolcynski’s second goal of the year midway through the first period. Senior assistant captain Gavin Bayreuther kept the puck in at the blue line and fed Jacob Pritchard on the right side. The Macomb, Mich. native hit Smolcynski with a backhand pass for a one-timer in the slot and a 1-0 St. Lawrence lead.
But Providence evened things at 1-1 less than three minutes later and went on to score four unanswered to take a 4-1 lead; one they would not relinquish.
Scott Conway scored on the power play to tie it and Shane Kavanagh made it 2-1 with a breakaway goal at 16:29 when he beat netminder Kyle Hayton along the ice under the left pad.
Providence opened the second period with two straight power play goals from Jacob Bryson and Erik Foley in the first three minutes to push the margin to 4-1.
The Saints had a five minute power play opportunity after Vimal Sukumaran was assessed a major and game misconduct for hitting from behind after sending Nolan Gluchowski hard into the end boards. Providence captain Josh Monk was also given a 10-minute misconduct after the call to Sukumaran, but the Saints couldn’t maintain pressure on the power play and failed to close the gap.
Late in the middle frame however, momentum started to swing back in favor of the Scarlet and Brown when senior captain Alexander Dahl sparked the Saints with the team’s first shorthanded goal of the year at 16:27.
Ryan Lough sprung Dahl on a breakaway with a great defensive play in the neutral zone. The Eau Claire, Wis., native went backhand, forehand to get Providence goaltender Hayden Hawkey sliding the opposite direction and pushed the puck into the open net on the far side while falling to the ice to make it 4-2.
With time winding down in the second, Joe Sullivan cut the deficit to one at 19:19 with a deflection in front on a hard wrister by Ben Masella from the right point.
Early in the third, however, Josh Wilkins gave the Friars a 5-3 lead after a missed call down low. Wilkins knocked Gavin Bayreuther down near the red line away from the play to create space just before receiving the pass from Brandon Duhaime for a one timer in the right circle.
Kyle Hayton took the loss for St. Lawrence with six goals against and 26 saves and was relieved by freshman Daniel Mannella after the sixth goal. Mannella had seven stops for St. Lawrence. Hawkey made 17 saves in the win for the Friars.
The Saints return to Appleton Arena for Homecoming/Hall of Fame Weekend next weekend with games against Wisconsin and Minnesota on Oct. 28-29.
