A third-period comeback bid fell short for the St. Lawrence men’s hockey team on Friday night, as the Saints fell to Yale 5-3 in an ECAC Hockey contest in Appleton Arena.
After falling behind 4-0, the Saints scored three straight late in the second period and in the first half of the third to cut the deficit to 4-3 and carried momentum into the latter half of the final frame.
However, a pair of penalty calls with 4:19 to play gave Yale a full two minutes of 5-on-3 power play time and Charlie Curti cashed in for the Bulldogs at the 17:23 mark of the third to push to eventual 5-3 margin.
Alex Gilmour, Carson Gicewicz and Cade Gleekel scored for the Saints on Friday night, as each notched their second goal of the season. Gilmour also added an assist in the game, while first-year Zach Risteau had the first multi-point game of his career with a pair of assists.
The Saints finished 1-for-2 on the power play with the Gilmour tally, while Yale went 2-for-5 with the man advantage.
The Bulldogs jumped out to a 1-0 lead with their first of two power play goals just 2:28 into the first period with a bar down shot from the right circle by Evan Smith.
Joe Snively extended the Yale lead to 2-0 with a breakaway goal off a stretch pass from Robbie DeMontis at the 10:38 mark of the opening frame, and Anthony Walsh rounded out the scoring in the first period with a wrister from the half wall that bested starter Arthur Brey high on the glove side for a 3-0 Bulldog lead.
Brey, who finished with six saves on the night, was pulled following the third Yale goal for junior netminder Daniel Mannella. Mannella stopped 29 in just over 43 minutes between the pipes on Friday night.
In the first half of the second period, Justin Walsh pushed the visitor’s lead to 4-0 when he picked up a turnover at the Saints defensive blue line and beat Mannella five hole.
However, later in the frame with the Saints on the power play, Gilmour sparked the Saints offense when he banged home the rebound from a shot by Risteau at the side of the net to cut the deficit to 4-1.
Thirty-one seconds into the third period, Carson Gicewicz also pushed a rebound behind Yale netminder Corbin Kaczperski to make it with Gilmour and Keenan Suthers assisting on the play. Though it doesn’t factor in on the score sheet, Bo Hanson made a great play as he pinched down from the left point to keep the puck in the zone and give Gicewicz and the Saints the opportunity.
Less than six minutes later, Risteau sprung Gleekel and Ted McGeen into the Yale zone for a 2-on-1 with Gleekel finishing a sauce pass from McGeen on the far post to pull the Saints within one at 4-3.
Minutes later the Saints had a number of opportunities on the doorstep, with Kaczperski stopping David Jankowski before Michael Ederer hit the post and Hanson sent a shot just wide all in a matter of seconds.
But the Saints were not able to find the equalizer before Yale’s 5-on-3 power play chance that led to Curti’s goal to conclude the scoring and push to the final 5-3 margin.
Yale finished with a 40-26 advantage in shots, as Kaczperski made 23 saves in the win for the Bulldogs.
With the loss, St. Lawrence falls to 2-11-0 on the season and is still looking for its first league points at 0-3-0. Yale improves to 4-2-1 overall and 3-2-1 against ECAC Hockey opponents.
The Saints will return to Appleton Arena to host Brown on Saturday night at 7 p.m.
