Harvard Tops Saints in Thriller

Photo by Tara Freeman

Boxscore

CAMBRIDGE, MA -- St. Lawrence University's men's hockey team had played three straight overtime games prior to Saturday night's game at Harvard. They would have loved to have gone another extra period on Saturday, but Harvard freshman goalie Matt Hoyle made a second period power play goal stand up as the game winner in a 1-0 win at the Bright Hockey Center.

St. Lawrence received a great game from goaltender Alex Petizian, who made 35 saves in his sixth straight start, but couldn't capitalize despite some great chances on the power play and drop to 4-4-1 overall and 1-2-1 in the ECAC. Harvard, which swept its North Country series, is now 4-2 both overall and in the league.

The Saints were looking for their fourth win in their last six trips to the Bright Hockey Center, which had been a tough venue to come out of with victories prior to the most recent set of games. The Saints had lost 10 of 11 prior to the 2006-07 season in Boston with the lone win a 5-1 victory in the 2006 playoffs.

"We played two pretty good games this weekend and have nothing to show for it," said Saint coach Joe Marsh. "You can't ask any more from a goaltender than what Alex gave us tonight and we had our chances, but their goaltender came up with some big saves as well. We shot ourselves in the foot a couple of times with ill-timed penalties, but it was a game we definitely could have won."

The Saints thought they had the go-ahead goal early in a second period power play, but it was ruled that the whistle had blown before Mike McKenzie's shot crossed the goal line. The Crimson then converted on their next power play chance to take a 1-0 lead at 9:44 as Matt McCollem picked up a rebound from Alex Killorn with Steve Rolecek also assisting.

The Saints had a great chance to tie it, getting a five-on-three power play late in the second, but Hoyle kept them off the board and a early third period penalty on the Saints negated the opportunity.

St. Lawrence had consecutive power plays midway through the third period and while the first one didn't create a lot of pressure on Harvard, Hoyle had to come up big on the second, but was able to keep the Saints from tying it up. A late penalty on the Saints gave Harvard the man advantage with 3:33 to play, and while the Saints were able to kill off the penalty, it did cost them valuable time in terms of trying to come up with the equalizer.

The Saints pulled Petizian for an extra attacker with just over a minute to play, but were called for an interference penalty on a pick in the offensive end and never really got a chance to get the extra-man attack going.

"It's never easy on the road in the ECAC, and that message was hammered home pretty well this weekend," Marsh added. "There is a lot of hockey left to be played and if we can clean up some things and keep playing with the effort we put forth this weekend, we will be okay. We need to gear it up again for two big ones at home with Princeton and Quinnipiac this coming weekend."