Saints Sweep Way into Semifinals

Photo by Jason Hunter/Watertown Daily Times

Final	1	2	3	Final
Quinnipiac (18-18-3)	3	0	0	3
St. Lawrence (21-11-4)	1	3	1	5

Scoring Summary
1st - 01:06	Travis Vermeulen (St. Lawrence)
1st - 10:44	Scott Zurevinski (Quinnipiac)
1st - 15:13	PP - David Marshall (Quinnipiac)
1st - 16:10	Eric Lampe (Quinnipiac)
2nd - 01:33	Travis Vermeulen (St. Lawrence)
2nd - 03:44	PP - Jared Ross (St. Lawrence)
2nd - 08:59	PP - Zach Miskovic (St. Lawrence)
3rd - 11:27	Zach Miskovic (St. Lawrence)

Quinnipiac	St. Lawrence
G: 3 Players (#7, #19, #22 - 1) A: Bryan Leitch - 2 Sh: Eric Lampe - 6 Sv: Bud Fisher - 34	G: 2 Players (#3, #26 - 2) A: 3 Players (#17, #77, #81 - 2) Sh: Jared Ross - 7 Sv: Alex Petizian - 33

TEAM STATISTICS	Quinnipiac	St. Lawrence
Power Plays	1 for 4	2 for 9
Shorthanded Goals	0	0
Penalties (min)	12 (24)	8 (16)
Shots on Goal	36	39
Face Offs Won	33	40

full stats

Boxscore

Canton, NY - Senior defenseman Zach Miskovic and junior center Travis Vermeulen scored two goals each to lead St. Lawrence University to a 5-3 win over Quinnipiac and a sweep of its ECAC Hockey quarterfinal best-of-three series at Appleton Arena on Saturday night.
           
St. Lawrence, ranked 15th nationally and 21-11-4 overall, joins Yale, a 2-0 winner over Brown in the ECAC semifinals. Two other series, Union at Princeton and Rensselaer at Cornell will go to Sunday night games to decide which teams join the Saints and Elis at the Times Union Center in Albany next weekend.

The Saints scored four unanswered goals after Quinnipiac, 18-18-3, had scored three straight to take a 3-1 lead after one period. The Saint defense, backed by another stellar goaltending performance by junior Alex Petizian, shut out the explosive Bobcat offense over the final 40 minutes of the game and allowed just three shots on goal in the final3:04 when Quinnipiac pulled goalie Bud Fisher for an extra attacker.

"I thought we recovered well after Quinnipiac got it rolling in the first period," said Saint coach Joe Marsh. "Nobody hit the panic button and Verms scored a huge goal early in the second period to get us started on the way back. I thought we got solid play throughout the lineup tonight and the guys certainly did an outstanding job playing with the lead and doing what they had to defensively in the final few minutes."

St. Lawrence grabbed the early lead in the game as Vermeulen put away a rebound of a shot by freshman Brandon Bollig with Alex Curran also assisting just 1:04 into the first period, but the Bobcats came back with three unanswered goals later in the period to take a 3-1 lead after one.

Freshman center Scott Zurevinski tied the game with his 11th goal of the year at 10:44 when he picked up a rebound off the backboards and tucked it between Petizian and the post. David Marshall then put Quinnipiac in front with his 22nd of the season as he scored with eight seconds to go in a five-on-three Bobcat power play at 15:13. Eric Lampe made it a 3-1 game just under a minute later as he took a lead pass from Mike Atkinson and broke away from the Saint defense, tucking the puck past Petizian at 16:10 for his 14th of the year.

The Saints came roaring back in the second period, scoring three in a row of their own to take a 4-3 lead. Vermeulen started the rally with his second of the night, putting away a rebound of Curran's shot just 1:33 into the period. The Saints then cashed in twice on five-on-three power plays to retake the lead.

Senior defenseman Jared Ross scored the first two-man advantage goal, blasting a shot from the point past Fisher at 3:44 for his fifth of the year and Miskovic scored the other five-on-three goal, redirecting Shawn Fensel's shot from the point inside the far post for his 14th of the season at 8:59.

Miskovic scored his second of the night at 11:27 of the third, finishing off a three-on-two rush with a quick shot just under the crossbar for his 15th of the year, the most for a Saint defenseman since Brian McColgan scored 17 in the 1988 national runner-up season.

Petizian finished with 33 saves for his fifth consecutive win and is 7-0-1 in his last eight starts. Fisher finished with 34 saves for the Bobcats.

"Quinnipiac certainly gave us a good test in the two games, and playing in this kind of situation against a team which is as explosive offensively as they are is a good way to prepare for what lies ahead in Albany and hopefully beyond." Marsh added.