Feb. 12: Senior captain Brian Ward scored in a scramble in front of the Quinnipiac net with 1:33 gone in overtime to lift St. Lawrence to a 4-3 victory over the top-ranked Bobcats in a ECAC Hockey game at Appleton Arena Friday night.
The Saints, who never trailed in the game, handed Quinnipiac, 21-2-6, 12-1-4 its first league loss and snapped a 10-game Quinnipiac unbeaten streak. SLU, 15-11-2, 9-6-1, held on to a share of fourth place in the league standings and moved to within a point of third place Harvard as it improved to 4-0-1 over its last five.
Ward’s game winner came off a pass from Drew Smolcynski and caromed past Bobcat goalie Michael Garteig off a defender’s skate as the Saints became the first team to beat Quinnipiac after the Bobcats had risen to number one nationally for the second time in the last three years. The Saints won 2-1 at Quinnipiac in the other win when the Bobcats were number one in February of 2013. It was the first appearance of a number one ranked opponent in the Saint arena since RPI in February of 1985.
“That was a very big win…I thought it was well deserved and we played with a lot of urgency,” said Saint coach Greg Carvel. “Obviously when you play the number one team in the country you bring your best, and I thought we did tonight. The third period was a little sloppy, but the first two periods I thought we played very well.”
The Saints never trailed in the game, but the leads did not last long.
The two teams, which played a scoreless tie at Quinnipiac earlier in the year, stretched the scoreless streak to 92:24 before Saint rookie Mike Laidley stole the puck in the Quinnipiac end and beat Garteig to the far post for his fourth goal of the season 7:24 into the second period. The lead lasted exactly 20 seconds as Quinnipiac won the draw and Soren Jonzzon deflected Chase Priskie’s shot from the point past Saint goalie Kyle Hayton at 7:44.
The Saints regained the lead on Gavin Bayreuther’s power play shot under the crossbar for his eighth of the year at 18:36 of the second, but Quinnipiac tied it again when Travis St. Denis scored his 14th of the year 42 seconds into the third period as his shot bounced into the net off a Saint defender shorthanded. Laidley scored his second of the night off a pass from defenseman Nolan Gluchowski at 1:12 of the third squeezing a shot between Garteig and the near post, but the Bobcats’ Sam Anas tied it 28 seconds later after a Saint turnover in the neutral zone, scoring his 21st of the season.
Neither goalie made a save in the overtime with Hayton finishing with 33 saves on 36 shots and Garteig 22 on 26.
“We battled and competed hard,” Carvel added. “We had a good game plan and all 20 guys worked hard to carry it out. It is a big, big win for us.”
