Box Score

CAMBRIDGE, MA -- The No. 6 St. Lawrence University women's hockey team advanced to the 2008 ECAC Hockey Championship Game with a 3-1 victory over No. 8 Dartmouth College on Saturday afternoon at the Bright Hockey Center on the campus of Harvard University. The Saints (28-8-1, 18-3-1) were led by their upperclassmen, as seniors Sabrina Harbec and Chelsea Grills each picked up goals while goaltender Meaghan Guckian was outstanding between the pipes with a 26 save performance.

The Big Green, who advanced to the conference semifinals with a sweep of the Colgate University Raiders last weekend, quickly grabbed a 1-0 lead only 5:11 into the opening period on the power play. Maggie Kennedy, the Big Green's leading scorer, centered a pass to Sarah Parsons in the slot. Though Guckian was able to turn away Parson's bid, the rebound came right to Shannon Bowman who lifted a shot under the cross bar for her 9th goal of the season and a 1-0 lead.

St. Lawrence, who dropped last year's ECAC Hockey title game to Dartmouth 7-3, peppered Dartmouth's Carli Clemis in the opening 20 minutes. However, the junior goaltender turned away all 15 shots she faced in the period to protect the Big Green's 1-0 cushion after one period of play.

In a penalty-filled second period, the Saints used a pair of power play goals to claim the lead after two stanzas. Harbec evened the score at 1-1 only 2:40 into the second while Nicole Ruta served a two-minute minor for Holding. A Dartmouth defender had a chance to clear the puck out of the zone while skating short-handed, but turned the puck over to junior Carson Duggan at the blue line instead. Duggan quickly snapped a pass across the ice to Harbec, who moved in one-on-one and beat Clemis to tie the score for her 17 th goal of the season.

Despite being out-shot 12-11 in the period, the Saints claimed a 2-1 lead at 17:47 of the second to carry an advantage into the final frame. Senior Annie Guay fired a shot from the point that bounced off of Duggan and slipped to the left post. Grills, who had an assist on Harbec's goal, was there to clean up the play and notch her 16th goal of the campaign with Clemis caught out of position.

The Big Green came out threatening in the third period, again out-shooting St. Lawrence 11-10. However, an undisciplined penalty by Amanda Trunzo put the Saints on the power play again at 5:39 of the third period. Another great shift by the line of Tara Akstull, Marianna Locke and Alison Domenico would give St. Lawrence several chances on the ensuing power play.

Akstull stole the puck from a Dartmouth defender in the corner and sent a crisp pass right on the tape of sophomore Brittaney Maschmeyer just outside the circle to Clemis' left. The Bruderheim, Alberta native fired a wrist shot that snuck past Clemis' right pad and into the goal to put St. Lawrence on top 3-1 with 13:02 remaining in regulation.

Though Dartmouth poured on pressure in attempting to climb back into the contest, Guckian was having none of it, and stymied the Big Green to improve to 23-8-1 on the season. Clemis suffered the loss despite making 35 saves, falling to 13-7-6 on the season. The Saints also used a very sound penalty kill, keeping Dartmouth to a 1-for-8 showing while they finished 3-of-6.

"I thought our power play group did a great job capitalizing on a few chances and bouncing back after falling behind early," said St. Lawrence head coach Paul Flanagan. I give Dartmouth a ton of credit, as they made us work for everything out there tonight. But we're certainly excited about having the chance to take on Harvard for the 2008 ECAC Hockey championship tomorrow."

The Harvard University Crimson advanced to the championship game with a 3-0 victory over Clarkson in the opening semifinal. The Saints dropped both contests to Harvard in the regular season by the scores of 5-1 and 2-0.

The Scarlet and Brown will face-off with Harvard at 2:00pm tomorrow, Sunday, March 9 at the Bright Hockey Center. The winner will earn the conference's automatic bid into the 2008 NCAA Tournament.