St. Lawrence Hands Brown Fifth Straight Loss

CANTON, NY – St. Lawrence (12-8-2, 6-3-1) broke open a 3-2 game with a pair of third-period goals to earn a 5-2 victory over the Brown men’s hockey team (5-12-1, 3-7-1), which dropped its fifth straight game, on Friday evening at Appleton Arena. Junior Harry Zolnierczyk (Toronto, ONT) led the Bears with a goal and an assist.

The Saints wasted little time in scoring the game’s first goal, needing just 1:29 of the first period to go ahead, 1-0. Brandon Bollig intercepted Bears breakout attempt inside the zone and immediately passed the puck to Travis Vermeulen on the right side. Vermeulen recognized a three-on-two developing for his team and crossed the puck over to Alex Curran, who beat senior Dan Rosen (Syosset, NY) with a quick shot to the far corner from the bottom of the left face-off circle.

The Saints nearly went up 2-0 just after a short Brown power play had expired in the fifth minute. Jeremiah Cunningham raced out of the penalty box and had just Rosen to beat, but Rosen denied his bid to hold the score at 1-0.

After a series of failed power play chances by both teams, the Bears tied the game at 18:30 with both teas skating four players. After senior Sean McMonagle (Oakville, ONT) collected the puck from Zolnierczyk at the center of the blueline, he waited a split second for the St. Lawrence defense to make a play. However, no one came out to pressure him and he fired a slap shot that beat Kain Tisi through the five-hole, tying the game at 1-1. Sophomore Jack Maclellan (Calgary, ALB) also earned an assist on the goal, his team-leading 10th of the year.

St. Lawrence began the second period with 20 seconds remaining on a four-on-three advantage, which would be followed by another 59-second five-on-four power play. The Bears killed the advantage and seemed to gain some momentum for a short period.

However, the Saints went up on their fourth power play at 5:53 and just 12 seconds later George Hughes gave the home team a 2-1 lead when his slap shot from the right point sailed over Rosen’s glove at 6:04

Brown had nearly taken a 2-1 lead about a minute prior to the Saints’ goal, but Tisi made a pair of saves on back-to-back chances from sophomore Bobby Farnham (North Andover, MA) and junior Jesse Fratkin (Burnaby, BC), both of which came from point-blank range. St. Lawrence raced down the ice on a counter attack and had a two-on-one, but junior Jeremy Russell (St. Albert, ALB) made a heads-up play, breaking up a pass in front.

Jacob Drewiske increased St. Lawrence’s lead to 3-1 at 14:07, connecting on a wrist shot from the outside of the left face-off circle, that beat Rosen to the far corner.

Zolnierczyk scored his second goal in as many games with 1:52 left in the period to bring Brown to within 3-2 after 40 minutes of action. Senior Devin Timberlake (Port Alberni, BC) picked up the puck from freshman Marc Senecal (North Bay, ONT) and skated around the boards and behind the net. He hit Zolnierczyk with a feed from behind the net and Zolnierczyk buried his one-timer from the slot through the five-hole, picking up his eighth goal of the season.

Brown opened the final period with 1:43 left on its sixth man-advantage of the evening, but could only muster one shot, a one-timer by Timberlake from the top of the crease that hit Tisi in the facemask.

Just 24 seconds after killing the Brown power play, the Saints increased their lead to 4-2 on a goal by Jordan Dewey. After receiving the puck from his defensive partner, Matt Raley, Dewey fired a blast from the left point that deflected off the post and behind Rosen at the 2:06 mark.

The Bears had some chances in the five minutes following the goal, including several occasions where the puck was lose in the slot. But every time, St. Lawrence was able to clear the puck before a Brown player could get a stick on it. A seventh power play chance for Brown at 7:32 proved to be futile, as Drewiske added a short-handed goal for St. Lawrence 1:01 into the man-advantage, chasing Rosen from the game.

Brown called a timeout with 2:28 left to play and left sophomore Mike Clemente (Great Falls, VA), who replaced Rosen after the Saints’ fifth goal, on the bench in favor of the extra attacker. However, despite the six-on-five advantage, the Bears could get no closer.
Rosen finished with 29 saves, while Clemente made five. Tisi stopped 25 for St. Lawrence, including all 13 he faced in the final period.

Brown will look to rebound tomorrow night when it wraps up a six-game road swing with a 7:00 p.m. league contest at Clarkson.