Rachael Smith scored two goals and added two assists, and Justine Reyes had a goal and three asissts to lead the seventh-ranked St. Lawrence University women’s hockey team to a 6-3 win over Brown in an ECAC Hockey contest at Meehan Auditorium on Friday night.
St. Lawrence built a 4-0 lead with two goals in each of the first two periods, and while the Bears cut the lead to two goals twice in the third period, the Saints scored the next goal on both occasions to win their second game in a row and improve to 4-3-2 overall and 2-1-0 in ECAC Hockey.
“It’s always a battle down here at Meehan,” said Saints head coach Chris Wells ’92. “Our team responded well after two quick goals by Brown in the third. We were able to make some real nice plays to keep the lead and preserve the win. Brown worked hard all night and kept us from getting any sustained momentum. The power play has been better and that has made a big difference in the last two games.”
Hannah Miller gave the Saints an early lead, flipping the puck in after Kayla Vespa fed her from behind the net. Kayla Nielsen increased the lead to two goals on the Saints’ first power play opportunity, redirecting a pass from Smith right in front of the net that was deflected past goaltender Lauren Rippy by a Brown defender.
Smith scored her first goal of the game with just over five minutes to play in the second. Reyes sent a shot towards the net, and it deflected off Kalie Grant’s skate right to Smith on the left side where she fired a shot over Brown goaltender Lauren Rippy’s left shoulder for her second goal of the year. Vespa put the Saints up by four with a power play goal from Reyes with less than two minutes to play in the second.
Cara Najjar and Abby Niewchas scored goals in the first two minutes of the third period to cut the lead to 4-2, but Smith restored the Saints’ three-goal lead when Reyes found her skating all alone towards the net. Smith went forehand-backhand for her first multi-goal game in a St. Lawrence uniform.
After Brown’s Veronica Alois cut the lead to two once again, Reyes put the game away with another 2-on-1 goal, passing back and forth with Grant before hitting a tough-angle shot for her fourth goal of the year.
St. Lawrence was 2-for-5 on the power play, while Brown was 1-for-2. Sonjia Shelly made 18 saves for the Saints, while Lauren Rippy made 23 saves for Brown, which fell to 0-5-0, 0-3-0.
St. Lawrence will face Yale in New Haven, Connecticut, on Saturday afternoon at 3 p.m.
