St. Lawrence Drops Thriller to Princeton

Photo by Tara Freeman

Boxscore

CANTON, N.Y. -- Senior captain Brandan Kushniruk snapped a 1-1 tie 6:41 into the third period and junior goaltender Zane Kalemba made it stand up for the game winner with nine third period saves as eighth-ranked Princeton University won its fifth straight game and snapped a long winless streak at St. Lawrence University’s Appleton Arena with a 2-1 win in ECAC Hockey on Friday night.

Princeton, 6-1-0 overall and 5-1-0 in the ECAC, won in Canton for the first time since February of 2001, snapping a 0-8-1 skid. St. Lawrence, 4-5-1 overall and 1-3-1 in league play, swept the Tigers a year ago and had won six of the last eight games against Princeton.

“It was another of those games in which we played well enough to win, but came up empty ,” said Saint coach Joe Marsh. “Princeton is an outstanding and very dynamic offensive team and I thought we did a good job against them, but they had the answer after we tied it up and they did a good job defensively in the latter stages of the game. Our guys have just got to keep their heads up and keep working hard and things will start going the right way for them.”

Kushniruk’s goal took the wind out of the Saint sails just 50 seconds after Saint senior wing Casey Parenteau had tied the game at 1-1 with his second of the season. Parenteau took a pass from junior Augie DiMarzo and snapped a shot between Kalemba and the post at 5:51 of the third, but Princeton won the ensuing faceoff and Kevin Kaiser set up the Kushniruk right in front of Saint goalie Alex Petizian for the go-ahead goal.

The Tigers scored the first goal of the game 4:10 into the second period as junior center Mark Magnowski worked the puck free along the end boards and centered it for sophomore Mike Kramer, who was alone in the short slot. Kramer snapped a shot which caught just inside the far post before the defense could react to give Princeton the lead.

The Saints became one of the few teams to outshoot Princeton thus far this season, but Kalemba had 21 of his 26 saves in the second and third periods and has yet to give up more than one goal in a game this season. Petizian finished with 17 saves for the Saints, who pulled the goalie for an extra attacker and had a faceoff in the Princeton zone with 42 seconds to play, but couldn’t come up with the equalizer.