Rookies Spark Saints
Not having leading scorer Kyle Flanagan for Saturday night's
ECAC Hockey matchup with Harvard did not seem like a good way to
come up with a split of the weekend home series for the Saint men's
hockey team.
But, rookies Chris Martin, Gunnar Hughes and Justin Bruckel
combined for three goals and two assists and sophomore goalie Matt
Weninger came through with a number of big saves among 30 for the
game and the Saints turned back the Crimson, 4-3, snapping a two
game losing streak to Harvard.
The Saints, 4-6-0 overall and 4-2-0 in ECAC play, lost Flanagan,
one of the top scorers in the league, to an upper body injury in
Friday's 3-1 loss to Dartmouth, but rookies responded to top the
Crimson, now 2-3-1 in both league play and overall. The four goals
represent the second most productive night of the season for the
Saints.
"We emphasized getting some shots through to the net and it paid
off tonight," said Saint associate head coach Mike Hurlbut. "It was
great to see Martin and Bruckel step up with some big plays and for
Gunnar to get his first career goal and have it be a game winner.
We hope to have Kyle back soon, but seeing production from some
different guys was encouraging."
Harvard, which got all three goals from its defense, broke on top
on the first power play chance of the game as freshman Patrick
McNally scored his second goal of the year, completing a rush into
the Saint end with a backhand just inside the far post 5:06 into
the game.
Martin brought the Saints even with a power play goal, his second
of the season as he took a pass from defenseman George Hughes and
beat Harvard freshman goaltender Steve Michalek from in close at
7:19 of the first and SLU went in front when senior captain Jacob
Drewiske scored his second of the year from short range near the
left post off a pretty feed from Bruckel on the power play at
14:49.
Junior defenseman Danny Biega scored his fourth of the season just
36 seconds into the second period on a power play that carried over
from the first period, but the Saints went back in front when
Drewiske won a faceoff in the Harvard end and defenseman Riley
Austin sent the puck to Martin along the side boards. Martin's
quick wrist shot caught the inside of the post and fell into the
net at 10:18 as Michalek never moved on the shot.
Harvard tied it one more time as sophomore defenseman Dan Ford
scored his first of the season on a shot from the point which went
just under the crossbar at 8:20 of the third, but Gunnar Hughes
scored the game winner 3:32 later when his dipping shot hit the
heel of Michalek's glove and went into the net at 11:52. Bruckel
earned his second assist of the night on the game winning goal as
Hughes' first goal came against his father's alma mater.
The Saints had to play 9:30 of the second period and the whole
third with just five defenseman as George Hughes was called for a
major and a game misconduct in a scrum in front of the Harvard net
at 11:30 of the second period, but the Saints killed off three
minutes of Harvard power play and did not take another penalty the
rest of the way.
Weninger came up with a big save on Harvard's Alex Killorn with
under a minute to go and while the Crimson pulled Michalek for an
extra attacker, they couldn't come up with the equalizer. Michalek
finished with 28 saves for the Crimson as Harvard had a slight
33-32 edge in shots on goal for the game.












