Cornell Holds Off Saints in Third Period for Win

Boxscore

ITHACA, NY-Cornell scored a second period power play goal and goaltender Ben Scrivens made it stand up for a 1-0 win in a classic goaltending  battle with St. Lawrence University's Alex Petizian at Cornell's Lynah Rink on Saturday night.

Petizian made 27 saves, 14 of them in the first period and Scrivens finished with 25 for his second 1-0 shutout win of the season. It was also the second time this season the Saints have been on the wrong end of a 1-0 score and the 16th time in Saint hockey history that SLU has played a 1-0 game, with all but two coming on the road. The Saints fall to 6-8-1 overall and 2-5-1 in league play while 13th ranked Cornell is 7-1-2 overall and 6-0-2 in the ECAC.

"It was a great hockey game and we certainly had our chances to at least tie it up, but Scrivens made some big saves and Cornell made some big defensive plays in front of him," said Saint coach Joe Marsh. "Alex kept us in it with some huge saves of his own, and it was one of those games that either team could have won."

The Saints had several opportunities to tie it up in the third period as Scrivens stopped Mike McKenzie on a partial break with 8:01 to play, stuffed Kevin DeVergilio right in front on a power play with 2:49 to play and then denied Travis Vermeulen on another late power play chance as the Saitns had three power plays in the final 3:42 but couldn't come up with the equalizer.

The Saints had an early chance to take a lead when Casey Parenteau broke in all alone on Scrivens, but Parenteau's shot bounced off the post and the crossbar and stayed out of the net with just over six minutes gone in the game. Petizian came up with a number of big saves among his 14 first period stops including a one-on-one with Cornell junior Blake Gallagher, son of former Saint assistant captain Paul Gallagher, midway through the first. Petizian also robbed Riley Nash on a two on one with 7:02 to play in the period as Cornell dominated play in the second half of the first and had a 14-3 edge in shots on goal.

The Saint offense, already short centers Brock McBride and Aaron Bogosian due to injury, was further crippled in the first period on Saturday when  McKenzie was injured midway through his first shift and went to the lockerroom for treatment. McKenzie returned to action in the second period.

Cornell took the lead in the game with McKenzie in the penalty box for slashing as Colin Greening converted the hockey equivalent of a slam dunk for his fifth goal of the year. Riley Nash sent a cross-crease pass to Greening who was all alone at the right post and Greening snapped the shot under the crossbar just eight seconds into the Big Red power play at 4:34.

The Saints had a 6-1 edge in shots on goal in the first 11:45 of the second, but had to kill off a five minute major to Brandon Bollig for a hit from behind and Cornell pulled even on the shotboard, although Petizian was able to keep them from further scoring, making all six of his second period saves on the major penalty kill.

The Saints dominated the third period, outshooting Cornell 14-7 with the help of the power play chances, but Scrivens kept the Big Red perfect at home and unbeaten in ECAC play at 6-0-2 in league play.