Senior Mike Marnell helped the St. Lawrence men’s hockey team fully erase a two-goal deficit against No. 9/10 Providence on Friday night with a third-period power play goal, but the visiting Friars prevailed with a 6-5 win in overtime.
Five different played scored for St. Lawrence on Friday night, including Bo Hanson, who scored his first collegiate goal to tie the game at 1-1 early in the first period. Ben Finkelstein and Ryan Garvey notched their firsts of the season, as did Marnell. Captain Joe Sullivan also scored for the Scarlet and Brown.
The team’s combined for seven goals in the first period with Providence leading 4-3 after 20 minutes. It was not only the first time the Saints have scored more than one goal in a game, but also the first time they’ve scored in the first period of play.
Providence opened the scoring just 1:02 into the game when Tommy Davis hit a shot through traffic that snuck inside the far post, beating St. Lawrence netminder Arthur Brey.
Hanson answered for the Saints less than two minutes later when he one-timed a drop pass from Carson Gicewicz into to the top right corner over Hayden Hawkey’s glove for a 1-1 game.
Providence’s Kasper Bjorkqvist scored back-to-back goals for the Friars, including one on power play, to retake the lead, 3-1, just before the 10-minute mark. Bjorkqvist finished with a hat trick on Friday night, with all of his goals coming in the first period.
With Providence leading 3-1, the Saints had just successfully killed off one minute and 34 seconds of a 5-on-3 midway through the frame to gain serious momentum. Finkelstein capitalized with a power play goal of his own at 13:30, with Nolan Gluchowski and Marnell assisting on the play to make it a game.
Garvey capped the scoring in the first period with a snipe from the top of the left circle to send the Saint’s into intermission down a goal at 4-3.
Providence struck first in the second period on a Brian Pinho goal at the three-minute mark, to push its lead to 5-3, but Sullivan answered just 24 seconds later to pull back within one. After Marnell and Hanson helped win a battle on the wall and pushed the puck to the Saints’ captain, he snapped off a wrist shot from the left circle that beat Hawkey high glove.
Later in the frame, the St. Lawrence penalty killers faced another tough test when Callum Cusinato was issued a five-minute major and a game misconduct. But the Saints successfully killed the major to stay in the game.
Marnell’s goal was the only goal in the third period, as he stuffed the rebound from a wraparound try by Sullivan into the open net to tie the game. There was a lengthy review to check for a crease violation or goaltender interference on the play, but the goal stood and the Saints forced overtime for the first time this season.
St. Lawrence played in seven overtime games in 2016-17, with all seven ending in a tie. That was not the case on Friday, however, as Josh Wilkins tipped a floating shot from Jacob Bryson at the edge of the crease up and over the glove of Brey to win the game for Providence at 2:47 of the extra frame.
Brey finished with 25 saves in the loss for the Saints, while Hawkey made 22 stops for the Friars. Additionally, St. Lawrence finished 1-for-5 on the power play and Providence went 2-for-7.
Providence improves to 3-1-0 on the year. The Saints fall to 0-5-0 with the loss.
