St. Lawrence falls to Boston College, 4-1, in NCAA Regional

MANCHESTER, NH: St. Lawrence University's men's hockey season came to an end in the NCAA Northeast Regional semifinal early Saturday evening as Boston College skated to a 4-1 win over the Saints and will advance to meet Miami in the regional final Sunday afternoon at 3:30.

"We played a great team tonight and I want to congratulate BC," said Saint coach Joe Marsh. "We worked very hard and didn't leave anything in the locker room. They have a great team and can certainly take advantage of their chances."

Saint goalie Alex Petizian came through with a big night for the Saints and gave them a chance to win. He was stunned on a third period save on a two-on-one, but stayed in the game and finished with 31 saves.

The Saints were making their first appearance in the NCAAs since the 2001 season and finished the year with a 23-14-2 season.

Boston College took the early lead in the game as Brian Boyle, a 6-7 forward who was converted to defenseman, but remains a big part of the Eagle offense walked around the Saint defense and slid a shot along the ice inside the far post just 1:24 into the game. It was the 18th goal and 53rd point of the season for the BC captain and gave the Eagles the early momentum.

The Saints worked their way back into it and started to generate some scoring chances after a slow start offensively. A trio of power play chances included a open net for Kevin DeVergilio, but the puck jumped over his stick before he could shoot and a big save on Brock McBride by BC goalie Cory Schneider.

St. Lawrence found itself in a 2-0 hole just 40 seconds into the second period when Ben Smith was awarded a goal on a power play stuff-in after a lengthy video review. Smith and Nathan Gerbe were jamming at the puck in the Saint crease and the goal light finally went on, but it appeared that referee Derek Shepard had waved the goal off. An automatic review of such circumstances takes place in NCAA games and the play was ruled a good goal off the video review.

Brock McBride got the Saints right back into it at 2:12 of the second when his shot from the sideboards after a pass by Max Taylor eluded Schneider for McBride's ninth of the season.

Petizian had a busy second period for the Saints, coming up with 17 saves, several of them on a pair of BC power plays.

BC opened some breathing room in the third period after Petizian came up big early in the period. The Saint freshman goalie bounced back after taking a shot in the neck on the neck and stopped Gerbe and came up big on Joe Rooney shorthanded. Sophomore Andrew Orpik gave the Eagles a 3-1 edge at 3:34 of the third period when he worked his way to the front of the net and tipped a long shot by Brian O'Hanley past Petizian.

The Saints had some power play chances, but BC blocked some shots and kept the Saints from getting good shots at rebounds by tying up sticks.

The Saints pulled Petizian for an extra attacker with 3:40 to go, and had a couple of good bids with the extra attacker as Schneider had to come up big on Casey Parenteau with 1:50 to go before BC finally wrapped things up with an empty net goal with 22:5 seconds go fo off the stick of Brock Bradford.