Saints End Skid, Skate Past Minutemen

Photo by Tara Freeman

Final	1	2	3	Final
St. Lawrence (5-6-1)	2	2	0	4
Massachusetts (6-6-1)	0	1	2	3

Scoring Summary
1st - 06:38	Alex Curran (St. Lawrence)
1st - 17:54	Zach Miskovic (St. Lawrence)
2nd - 09:11	Mike McKenzie (St. Lawrence)
2nd - 13:04	Zach Miskovic (St. Lawrence)
2nd - 14:53	SH - Quirk, Cory (Massachusetts)
3rd - 18:57	Quirk, Cory (Massachusetts)
3rd - 19:23	Berry, Alex (Massachusetts)

St. Lawrence	Massachusetts
G: Zach Miskovic - 2 A: Sean Flanagan - 2 Sh: Zach Miskovic - 5 Sv: Robby Moss - 24	G: Quirk, Cory - 2 A: Marcou, James - 2 Sh: Quirk, Cory - 5 Sv: Dainton, Paul - 17

TEAM STATISTICS	St. Lawrence	Massachusetts
Power Plays	0 for 4	0 for 7
Shorthanded Goals	0	1
Penalties (min)	8 (16)	5 (10)
Shots on Goal	21	27
Face Offs Won	29	38

full stats

Boxscore

AMHERST, MA — Zach Miskovic scored two goals and rookie goaltender Robby Moss came away with his first collegiate win in his first collegiate start as St. Lawrence stopped a five-game winless streak with a 4-3 win at 17th ranked Massachusetts Friday night.

The Saints built a 4-0 lead in the second period and held a three goal cushion with just over two minutes to play, but had to survive a wild final minute as the Minutemen scored two goals with the goaltender pulled to make it interesting.

“That was a big win for us in a lot of different ways,” said Saint coach Joe Marsh. “Obviously it was a big one for Robby Moss, and I thought he was very poised and made a number of key saves at key times in the game. It was also nice to see us come away with a positive result after getting a very consistent effort across the board.”

The Saints played a solid first period and came out of it with a 2-0 lead. Alex Curran opened the scoring with his first goal of the year 6:38 into the game as he tipped a shot from the top of the circle by Mike McKenzie past Minuteman goalie Paul Dainton. Brock McBride and Kevin DeVergilio teamed up to send Zach Miskovic away on a breakaway for the second Saint goal late in the period. The teams were skating four-on-four when McBride tipped the puck away from a UMass forward and to DeVergilio, who sent a perfect lead pass to Miskovic who had a step on the defense and buried his fourth of the year from the top of the crease at 17:54.

The second period was a series of penalty kills by the Saints, but they managed to increase their lead to 4-0 before the Minutemen finally got on the board. The Saints were credited with just two shots on goal in the period, but scored on both.

SLU killed off 1:44 of a five-on-three to start the period and McKenzie increased the lead to 3-0 with the Saints’ second breakaway goal of the game at 9:11 as he came off the bench on a line change and Sean Flanagan spotted him, delivering a perfect lead pass. McKenzie deked Dainton for his fifth of the season with Matt Generous also assisting. Miskovic then made it a 4-0 game with his second of the night, scoring on a blast right off a faceoff win in the UMass zone by Flanagan at 13:04.

The Minutemen got one back at 14:03 on the Saints’ first power play chance of the game as Cory Quick took a shot which Moss gloved, but Quick and a Saint defender fell into Moss and the puck trickled into the net for a shorthanded goal.

Already down two regulars heading into the game, the Brock McBride left the ice after a collision early in the second period and did not return and both DeVergilio and Travis Vermeulen missed shifts due to injury in the second, but were able to return to action.

The Saints were without sophomore center Aaron Bogosian, who missed his first SLU game after sustaining a shoulder injury in practice on Wednesday, and captain Jared Ross, whose brother passed away Thursday after a battle with cancer.

“Those are two every day guys who will certainly be missed whenever they can’t be in the lineup,” said Saint coach Joe Marsh. “I know everyone’s thoughts and prayers are with Jared and his family…it certainly puts things in perspective.”

The Saints needed a pair of key faceoff wins in the defensive zone late in the game and got them both after UMass had come back to make it a one-goal game with the goaltender pulled. Quirk scored the first goal with 1:03 to play as he banked the puck off a Saint defender in front from a tough angle and Alex Berry got the second 26 seconds later on a blast from the center slot to make it a one goal game.

Vermeulen won two defensive zone draws, one with 21 seconds left and the second with seven seconds left and Curran was able to tie the puck up along the boards to wrap up the win.