Junior Mike Marnell scored four goals, including two on the power play and one shorthanded, to help No. 20 St. Lawrence to a 7-2 win over Brown on Saturday night in Appleton Arena. With the win, the Saints move into first place in the ECAC Hockey standings with 11 points at 5-0-1. St. Lawrence is now 8-4-2 overall, while Brown drops to 1-7-0 and 1-5-0 in conference games.
Marnell’s four goals in a game are the most for a Saints players since Burke Murphy had five against Dartmouth in 1996 and the first shutout since Jeremy Wick in 2014. It’s also the first time the Saints have scored seven goals in a game since Feb. 7, 2015 against Union in Appleton Arena.
In addition to Marnell, Michael Ederer, Drew Smolcynski and Jacob Pritchard scored for the Saints, while Gavin Bayreuther and Nolan Gluchowski recorded multi-point nights. Smolcynski’s goal in the final minute of the first period served as the game winner. Four of the seven goals against the Bears came on the power play, doubling the season total through the first 13 games for the Scarlet and Brown.
It was all St. Lawrence in the opening period, as they outshot the Bears 18-1 in the first 20 minutes and entered the first intermission with a 3-0 lead.
Ederer put the Saints on the board midway through the frame when he deposited a rebound behind rookie netminder Gavin Nieto for a 1-0 lead. Senior defensemen Ben Masella and Mike Graham started the rush for the Saints, with Graham taking a flat-angle shot was saved by Nieto before Ederer came crashing in on the right wing for the goal.
Later in the period, Brown’s Tim Lappin was assessed a five-minute major and a game misconduct for contact to the head after a hit on Carson Gicewicz setting up a lengthy power play opportunity for the Saints. It took just 11 seconds for Marnell to increase the lead to 2-0 with a shot from the bottom of the left circle with Pritchard and Gluchowski assisting.
In the final minute of the frame with the Saints still on the power play, Smolcynski picked up an errant pass into the slot by the Brown defense and dangled around a pair of defenders before backhanding a shot behind Nieto for the Saints’ third goal.
Just 28 seconds into the middle frame, Marnell potted his second of the night – also with the man advantage stemming from the Lappin major – off a rebound from a shot from the point by Bayreuther to give St. Lawrence a 4-0 lead.
Brown cut the deficit to three goals when Tommy Marchin beat the Saints’ Kyle Hayton with a high wrister from the left hashmarks at 7:33 of the middle frame.
Marnell responded for the Saints later in the period with a shorthanded breakaway goal for the hat trick.
With Pritchard in the penalty box, the Saints netted their fifth shorthanded goal of the season when Bayreuther chipped the puck to Sullivan on the left half wall in the defensive zone before Sullivan hit a streaking Marnell with a two-line pass for a clear breakaway on Nieto. Marnell roofed a shot behind the rookie netminder to make it 5-1 St. Lawrence.
The Bears added a power play tally of their own with time winding down in the second period, as Max Willman scored the visitor’s second and final goal of the night just six seconds remaining.
Midway through the third period, Hayton made a save on Brown’s Dave Middleton, but the puck squeaked through his legs and trickled towards the open net behind him. Both Ryan Garvey and Alexander Dahl dove to keep the puck from crossing the line and, in doing so, dislodged the net. Dahl was called for delay of game and Brown’s Sam Lafferty was awarded a penalty shot.
Hayton played it perfectly from start to finish and didn’t give Lafferty and inch of net to shoot at, as the Bears’ junior center attempted to backhand a shot over Hayton’s right pad but hit the outside of the post.
Less than three minutes later, Pritchard notched the fourth power play goal of the night as Gluchowski hit him cutting through the middle on the rush for a quick shot that beat Nieto high on the blocker side.
Marnell concluded the scoring with his fourth of the night at the 14:31 mark of the third. He and Ederer moved into the Brown zone two-on-two with Ederer carrying down the right wing before feeding Marnell for a one-timer in the slot to make it 7-2 St. Lawrence.
Hayton finished with 24 saves in the win; his eighth of the year, while Nieto made 32 stops for Brown in the loss.
The Saints now head to Belfast, Northern Ireland to play in the second annual Friendship Four tournament. St. Lawrence will face Quinnipiac in a conference game on Friday, Nov. 25 at 2:30 p.m. Eastern, before playing either UMass or Vermont on Saturday, Nov. 26.
