St. Lawrence Blanks Maine

Boxscore

CANTON, N.Y. -- Senior goaltender Meaghan Guckian made 23 saves including 11 in the third period, while junior forward Marianna Locke scored her first goal since October 20 as the No. 4 St. Lawrence University women's hockey team defeated Maine by the score of 2-0 in Appleton Arena on Friday night.

St. Lawrence improved to 12-3-0 (7-1-0) on the season, while their opponent from Hockey East fell to 1-15-2 (0-6-2).

The Saints had plenty of offensive chances throughout each of the first two periods, but found a very talented rookie goaltender, Sarah Bishop, waiting on the opposite end of the ice. Bishop was outstanding throughout the contest, and her only blemish in the first period came at 7:40 when Locke tallied her fifth goal of the season.

Senior Sabrina Harbec started the play by sliding a pass to the blue line for sophomore Britni Smith. Smith launched a shot on net, and though Bishop handled the first shot, she couldn't corral the rebound which was scooped up by Locke and backhanded into the goal to give St. Lawrence a 1-0 lead.

With her team nursing a 1-0 lead, Guckian came up big for the Saints several times as Maine worked to even the score. However, she would post a perfect first period with eight saves.

The Scarlet and Brown, who boast the nation's top scoring offense, continued to generate chances throughout the second period, firing 27 shots on goal in the frame including 15 on the power play. However, Bishop made several sprawling saves and had some help from her cage, as St. Lawrence hit four posts throughout the contest.

With the score still 1-0 in favor of St. Lawrence, senior Kerri Wallace hit an outlet pass to newcomer Karlee Shields who relayed the puck on to a wide open Chelsea Grills. With the defense behind her, Grills moved in one-on-one with Bishop and got the goaltender out of position to allow the puck to simply slide over the goal line at put the Saints ahead 2-0 at 9:24 of the second period.

Though St. Lawrence held a 45-12 advantage in shots on goal through two periods, there was no quit in the Black Bears, as they worked hard for the full 60 minutes and managed to out-shoot St. Lawrence in the final period 11-9. However, Guckian held her ground and worked with her defense to kill off consecutive 5-on-3 advantages for Maine midway through the period. With an 11-save third period, Guckian posted her ninth win of 2007-08, and the 16th shutout of her career.

"I thought we worked hard offensively all night, created a lot of good scoring chances but didn't have much to show for it," said Saints head coach Paul Flanagan. "I give Maine a lot of credit, they played a full game and their goaltender kept them around. We know they'll be ready to play again tomorrow."

The Saints finished with a 54-23 advantage in shots, including a 25-3 advantage of shots on the power play, though neither team was able to score a power play goal as both squads finished 0-for-6. With the victory, Guckian improves to 9-3-0 on the season, while Bishop falls to 0-5-0 despite making 52 saves, the most against St. Lawrence this season and the first goalie to make 50+ saves against the Saints since March 4 th, 2006 (Sarah Love of Yale made 52 saves in a 6-2 St. Lawrence victory).

St. Lawrence and Maine will hit the ice again tomorrow, Saturday, December 8th to conclude their two-game, non-conference series. The puck will drop on the Saints and Black Bears at 2:00 p.m.