Feb. 26: Friday night’s ECAC Hockey game against Dartmouth College did not get off to the best of starts but St. Lawrence University’s men’s hockey team, but it certainly ended well.
While the Saints dominated from start to finish, Dartmouth jumped out to a 2-0 lead before SLU rallied to score five straight goals and lock up a first-round playoff bye with one game left in the regular season. The win makes the Saint class of 2016 the first senior class to earn back-to-back byes since 2001.
The Saints, 17-12-3 overall and 11-7-2 in league play are guaranteed at least a fourth place finish thanks to their win over Dartmouth, 14-13-1, 11-10-0 and a 2-0 Colgate win over Rensselaer. SLU will play Harvard on Saturday night in the final game of the regular season and could pass the Crimson for third place in the final standings.
Dartmouth jumped out to a 2-0 lead, but the Saints responded with three goals to lead 3-2 after one and added a pair of insurance goals in the third period.
“They got two goals early, but we weren’t in the least concerned on the bench,” said Saint coach Greg Carvel. “I like the way we started and then carried it through 60 minutes. I thought that was a real outstanding effort all through the lineup. All four lines contributed offensively and I thought our defensemen did a tremendous job bringing the puck out.”
Dartmouth sophomore Corey Kalk scored on the first shot on goal of the game just 1:18 into play and added his second of the night and ninth of the season at the 11 minute mark of the first period, but the Saints responded with Mike Marnell’s seventh of the year 21 seconds later to begin their comeback.
Smolcynski scored his first of the night from the center slot at 16:21 to tie the game and sophomore center Ryan Lough put a rebound of Alex Dahl’s shot off the post back past Dartmouth goalie James Kruger at 17:46 to give the Saints the 3-2 lead after one.
SLU kept the pressure on in the second period, but Kruger kept them off the board with 13 of his 32 saves. Sophomore Joe Sullivan scored his 10th of the year on the backhand 1:45 into the third for an insurance goal and Smolcynski completed the scoring with his second of the night and ninth of the year at 10:07 for the 5-2 final.
Kyle Hayton made 16 saves for the Saints, who outshot Dartmouth 37-18 and had a team total of 13 blocked shots in the game.
“We were physically dominant and played with great energy. We played at a playoff level tonight,” Carvel added. “I thought we checked really well and frustrated them. The key for us was breaking out against their forecheck and I think our “D” did that really well.”
