Union Hands Saints Semifinals Defeat
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St. Lawrence University's 2009-10 men's hockey season will come to an end in the ECAC Hockey third place game on Saturday afternoon after Union took advantage of some bounces to pull out a 3-1 win over the Saints in the semifinals on Friday, ending a run of three straight playoff wins for the Saints.
St. Lawrence, 19-15-7, will play Brown in the third place game while Union, 21-11-6 and in its first ECAC championship round appearance, will go on to play Cornell in the championship game.
It was the third straight semifinal loss for the Saints, but the effort was outstanding. SLU outshot Union 30-19 for the game and 22-9 over the final 40 minutes of the game, but could not buy a goal. The Saints spent most of the third period in the Union end and pulled goalie Kain Tisi for an extra attacker with 1:42 to play, but could not come up with the equalizer and Union added an empty net goal with just under five seconds to play.
"Union did an outstanding job of tying our guys up in front of their goaltender and not giving us second chances," said Saint coach Joe Marsh. "Both teams worked very hard and I think both teams are very similar in the way they approach the game. We are obviously disappointed in the outcome, but I am proud of the effort our guys have put forth throughout the playoffs."
Union scored the only goal of the first period at 10:25, just 11 seconds after a successful Saint penalty kill. The Saints turned the puck over in the corner of their defensive zone and Stephane Boileau passed the puck to sophomore Luke Cain, who took it at the top of the faceoff circle and went one-on-one with Saint goalie Kain Tisi, beating Tisi just under the crossbar for his seventh of the year.
The Saints had a slight edge in play in the second period, but struggled to get their offense untracked until senior defensemen Jeff Caister and Derek Keller collaborated on the first SLU goal of the game with time running down in the period. Caister found Keller with a pass near the blue line and Keller walked in with the Union defense backed in around goalie Keith Kinkaid. Keller snapped a shot which caught the upper corner with Brandon Bollig screening for Keller's 10th of the year and a 1-1 tie at 19:35 of the second.
Saints nearly took the lead midway through the third period, but while Pete Child's shot got behind Kinkaid, it hit the inside of the post and stayed out of the net. Union came right back down and took the lead as a shot by junior forward Adam Presizniuk from a sharp angle hit a Saint stick and trickled past the outstretched glove of Tisi at 9:26 to make it a 2-1 game.
The Saints outshot Union 13-4 in the third period, but could not get anything past Kinkaid, who handled a lot of long range shots and did not give up any rebounds. Senior Mario Valery-Trabucco iced the win with his 23rd of the season into an empty net with 4.9 seconds left on the clock.
