St. Lawrence Claims Third-Place with 5-3 Come-from-Behind Victory vs. Dartmouth

Saints await NCAA bid after 5-3 win over Dartmouth

ALBANY, N.Y. -- Drew Bagnall made a big defensive play early in the game and set up a huge goal midway through the third period as St. Lawrence beat Dartmouth 5-3 in the ECAC Hockey League third place game on Friday evening, locking up a spot in the 2007 NCAA Championship Tournament.

The game marked just the fourth appearance in the third place game in tournament history for the Saints and the first since 1983. It was however, more significant than the average third place game in that the Saints' hopes for an NCAA tournament berth rode squarely on the outcome. A win or a tie by the Saints sealed a bid according to experts on the selection process. The Saints' first third place finish should assure them a spot in the 16-team NCAA field. The official bids and pairings will be announced Sunday afternoon at 2:30 on ESPN-2.

The Saints improve to 23-13-2, while Dartmouth, which also entertained NCAA hopes with a win and help from other teams later in the day, finishes its season 18-12-3 after one of the more exciting third place games in recent history.

The Saints battled back from a 2-0 deficit to take the lead on Mike McKenzie's second goal of the night at 11:27 of the third period and iced the win with Max Taylor's 13 th of the year into an empty net with just under eight seconds to go.

"This was a very emotional game for our guys," said Saint coach Joe Marsh. "It is hard to explain because we have never been in a consolation game since I have been here, but it was a game we knew we had to win if we wanted to keep playing. The big thing was to play hard and get the good feelings back and then hope to play some more tomorrow.

"This was a big response by us. We were as low as we've been all year after the semifinal loss, and that makes this response particularly impressive," Marsh added.

The first period was dominated by the goaltenders with each team having excellent scoring chances denied by the guys in pads. Alex Petizian robbed Dartmouth's Kevin Swallow from point blank range 1:15 into the game and made another power play save on T.J. Galliardi 4:21 into the game. Bagnall then blocked a shot by Nick Johnson at a wide open net later on the same power play to keep it scoreless. At the other end of the ice, Dartmouth's Mike Devine made big saves on Travis Vermeulen, Andrzej Sandrzyk and McKenzie in the second half of the period.

The lone goal of the period came off a defensive mistake in the Saint end as the puck was left for a Saint forward, but Dartmouth's Nick Johnson was the first to reach it and gunned a shot from between the circles inside the far post with just 24.5 seconds to play in the period for the 1-0 lead.

Dartmouth put the Saints in a 2-0 hole on David Jones' power play goal just 2:05 into the second period as he tipped a shot from the center slot by T.J. Galiardi past Petizian, but the Saints came storming back.

Kevin DeVergilio snapped a five period scoreless streak when he tipped home a shot from the right faceoff circle by Matt Generous for his ninth of the season. DeVergilio was at the far post and got a stick on Generous' hard shot which was set up by Derek Keller's feed at 6:47.

The Saints tied it just 46 seconds later as McKenzie worked into the center slot and scored his 11 th of the year from Kyle Rank and Drew Bagnall, snapping a shot into the upper corner as Rank passed the puck out from beside the goal at 7:33.

SLU had a chance to take the lead with just over ten minutes to play in the period, but Devine robbed Max Taylor from right in front and the Big Green jumped back in front just under a minute later when J.T. Wyman finished off a two-on-one rush with his 13 th goal of the season at 10:54.

Mark Wallmann then made a big play along the boards for the Saints and centered the puck to Jeremiah Cunningham, who gunned his seventh of the year past Devine at 12:20 to make it a 3-3 game. The Saints had some great chances to take their first lead of the night, but Devine came up big on Brock McBride with 2:30 to go and DeVergilio clanged one off the crossbar on the power play with 30 seconds to go in the period and it stayed 3-3 through two periods.

The Saints kept the pressure on in the Dartmouth end in the third period and had a big flurry of shots with nine minutes to play. The puck was dumped out of the zone, but Bagnall brought it back in and gunned a shot from the top of the faceoff circle which McKenzie tipped past Devine at 11:27 for his seventh game winner of the season and second of the post-season. Andrzej Sandrzyk, who turned in two outstanding games in Albany, also assisted on the go-ahead goal.

Dartmouth pulled Devine for an extra attacker with just over a minute to go, but the Saint defense and Petizian stood up to the onslaught. Alex Curran finally worked the puck out of the Saint end with a dozen seconds left and sent a soft pass ahead to Taylor, who finished it off with the empty netter with 7.9 seconds left on the clock.

Petizian finished with 24 saves for the Saints and won his 19 th of the year while Devine had 37 stops for Dartmouth as the Saints outshot the Big Green 42-27.

"Getting to the NCAA tournament is huge," Bagnall said after the game. "We have worked all year to get the opportunity to play as long as we possibly can and that makes tonight's win the best consolation prize we could hope for."