Saints Upend No. 2 Yale
Senior center Aaron Bogosian gave St. Lawrence University a 3-1 lead late in the second period and junior goaltender Robby Moss made 31 saves as the Saints held off second-ranked Yale 3-2 in a ECAC Hockey game at Appleton Arena on Friday night.
The Saints had to survive nearly a minute of extra-attacker play by Yale and dodged a big bullet when Yale senior Brock Little missed a redirection try alone at the side of the net with under three seconds to go in regulation as they upended a team ranked second in the nation for the second time this season. SLU, which opened the new year with a 2-1 win at then second-ranked New Hampshire, improves to 9-14-5 overall and 5-10-1 in the ECAC, while Yale is 19-5-0 and 13-4-0 in league play.
"That was a great hockey game and a tremendous win for us," said Saint coach Joe Marsh. "I thought we did a great job at both ends of the ice...it was just the kind of performance we needed to be successful against one of the country's top teams."
While Yale dominated the game territorially to start, the Saints made the most of an early foray as graduate forward Sean Flanagan tipped a shot from the left point by freshman defenseman Riley Austin into the upper corner over the shoulder of Eli goalie just 1:08 into the game.
Solid play in the defensive end kept the Saints in front as Yale maintained its pressure and SLU took a 2-0 lead on the game's first power play opportunity, converting for the sixth time in their last nine power play chances. Nick Pitsikoulis picked up a rebound of an initial shot by Jacob Drewiske and put it back over Rondeau's pads for his eighth of the season and fourth in the last five games at 13:07 with rookie defenseman Pat Raley also assisting.
Yale cut the Saint lead in half at the 15:56 mark of the second period, converting just after a power play had expired as sophomore Andrew Miller took the puck from Brian O'Neill, created some space in front with a nifty move and snapped a shot inside the far post for his seventh of the year. The Saints responded just over two minutes later when freshman Greg Carey created a turnover in the neutral zone and sent Kyle Flanagan and Aaron Bogosian in on a two-on-one. Bogosian took the pass from Flanagan and fired his 10th of the year inside the right post to make it 3-1 at 18:20.
Saint defenders got tied up with each other in front of Moss at the 12:55 mark of the third period and sophomore Antoinie Laganiere scored his third of the year to cut the Saint lead to 3-2, but Moss held his ground the rest of the way and the Saint defense came through with some big clears to hold on for the upset win.
"It was a little scary there in the third period, but we made some big blocks and got pieces of some shots to go with another really good goaltending performance by Robby Moss," said Marsh. "I think we all held our breath when we saw Little alone at the side of the net, but things went our way."
The Saints held the Yale power play scoreless in four opportunities as Yale had a 33-24 edge in shots on goal with Rondeau making 21 saves for the Elis. Yale, unbeaten at home, dropped to 5-5-0 on the road this season heading into a Saturday night game at Clarkson.
