Saints Snap Streaks with Win Over Clarkson
The 1980 Rink at Herb Brooks Arena in Lake Placid proved to be just the tonic St. Lawrence University's men's hockey team needed on Saturday night as the Saints improved to 9-3-0 in that venue with a 4-1 win over arch rival Clarkson.
Freshman Patrick Doherty snapped a 1-1 tie with a power play
goal with 2:07 to play in the second period, and four different
Saint players scored goals to back a solid goaltending performance
by Matt Weninger, snapping a pair of four-game losing streaks.
The two teams met for the second time in four days as part of the
Festivus Faceoff. In the first game of the day, Union turned back
its arch-rival RPI, 5-2. The Saints, who had lost four
straight to Clarkson over the last two seasons and four straight
this season, improve to 6-10-0 on the year with the non-league win
while Clarkson is now 9-7-4.
"That was a solid 60-minute effort," said Saint associate head
coach Mike Hurlbut. "We worked hard from the opening faceoff to the
final whistle and were rewarded for the effort. Special teams,
goaltending, five-on-five, it was just the kind of game we
needed."
The Saints, who got off to a slow start in Tuesday's 5-3 loss in
Canton, played a much better first period in Lake Placid, but the
two teams came out of the first 20 minutes scoreless thanks to
solid play by both goaltenders. Clarkson's Paul Karpowich made nine
first period saves while Matt Weninger had ten for the Saints, four
of them on a late power play. Weninger's pad save on Clarkson
goal-scoring leader Nick Tremblay with just 10 seconds left in the
man-advantage kept it tied.
St. Lawrence took its first lead since a 3-2 win over Michigan
Tech at 6:28 of the second period as Kyle Essery put a power play
shot behind Karpowich. Justin Bruckel and Pete Child set up the
goal as Essery went upper corner for his fifth goal of the
season.
Clarkson came back to tie it at 15:01 when Corey Tamblyn was
credited with his seventh goal of the year after a big rebound on a
save by Weninger on Jake Morley's initial shot went into a tangle
of players and bounced into the net. The Saints regained the lead
2:52 later when Doherty snapped a wrist shot past Karpowich as he
skated down the middle on a power play. Doherty's fourth goal of
the year was assisted by Bruckel at 17:53.
The Saints made it a 3-1 game just 54 seconds into the third
period as freshman defenseman Nelson Armstrong popped the puck free
along the side boards and sent it to sophomore Greg Carey, who
walked in on Karpowich and backhanded his third of the season into
the net. The Saints completed the scoring when freshman Chris
Martin scored his sixth of the season, finishing off a two-on-one
with Jake Drewiske with a goal-mouth tap-in.
Weninger finished with 27 saves for his first career win against
the Knights, while Karpowich had 23 for Clarkson, which went
scoreless in five power play attempts while the Saints scored twice
in seven man-up tries.












