Nov. 21: It had to happen sometime, and with two of the best goaltenders in the East at either end of the ice, Saturday night was it.
St. Lawrence University and Quinnipiac played to a 0-0 tie in a ECAC Hockey game Saturday night with the Saints’ Kyle Hayton and the Bobcats’ Michael Gaertig combining for 67 saves. It was the first scoreless tie in Saint hockey history, and came in the 2083rd game since 1925-26.
The tie gives the Saints a three point weekend in league play as they are 8-3-2 overall and 3-1-1 in league play. Quinnipiac, ranked third nationally, tied for the second time on the weekend and is still unbeaten at 11-0-2 overall and 4-0-2 in league play.
Hayton made 31 saves for his second shutout in the last three games and the seventh of his career. Gaertig finished the night with 36 stops as the Saints had a slight edge in shots on goal.
“That was one of those few times that their goalie had a bigger night than Kyle. He made a ton of big saves,” said Saint coach Greg Carvel. “We had plenty of scoring chances and played a really strong game.”
“I am very proud of the way we played…we played hard and we played it the right way. That was two really good hockey teams going head to head, and while I am sure we both would have preferred the win, a point each was a fair outcome.”
The game was as close across the board as the tie would indicate. SLU had 61 shot attempts to 58 for the Bobcats…Quinnipiac blocked 16 shots and the Saints 15 and the Bobcats won 32 facesoff and the Saints 29. There were seven power play chances in the game with the Bobcats going scoreless in four and the Saints stopped on three chances.
Hayton has now given up one goal in his last three starts and stopped 104 of 105 shots in that span. He went into Saturday’s game fifth overall among league goalies in goals against average at 1.99 while Garteig was third at 1.53. He now has a 1.82 goals against average and a .938 save percentage in 12 starts.
The Saints, 2-0-1 in their last three league games head into a weekend off for Thanksgiving and then continue a challenging series of road contests, playing at Cornell and Colgate on Dec. 4-5.
