Saints, Golden Knights Battle to Deadlock

Boxscore

CANTON, N.Y. -- St. Lawrence University senior goaltender Meaghan Guckian turned in one of her best efforts of the season on Saturday evening, as the Victor, NY native made 32 saves, including 16 in a penalty-filled second period, helping the No. 6 Saints to a 2-2 tie against No. 9 Clarkson in Appleton Arena. With the home team trailing by a goal with under ten minutes to play, rookie Karell Emard jammed in her 5th of the season for the equalizer to give St. Lawrence a point in the ECAC Hockey standings.

The Scarlet and Brown (20-7-1, 13-2-1) played an overtime session for the first time this season, and extended their unbeaten streak to seven games. Meanwhile, Clarkson (18-6-4, 9-5-2) let another opportunity to knock off the Saints in Appleton slip away after holding a 2-1 lead throughout much of the contest. The Golden Knights, who finished 1-of-11 on the power play on Saturday, are 0-4-1 against their cross-town rival in enemy territory, including a last-minute loss to the Saints in the ECAC Hockey Quarterfinals last season.

St. Lawrence wasted little time in getting the scoring underway, as junior Lisa Batchelor picked up her 5 th goal of the season only 2:30 in the contest. First year student Kirsten Roach found fellow classmate Michelle Zimmerman along the boards to Clarkson goaltender Lauren Dahm's left. Zimmerman, who was one of the Saints' heroes in last night's 3-1 victory over the Knights, fired a shot on goal that Dahm turned aside, but right to Batchelor, who showed great composure in rifling a shot past the goalie to put her team on top, 1-0.

The Golden Knights would respond in a big way, though, as the Green and Gold scored a pair of goals to end the period and grab a 2-1 lead. Brooke Beazer evened the score at 1-1 at the 5:26 mark of the first when she deflected a pass from Marie-Jo Gaudet over Guckian's shoulder. The tally was Beazer's 4th of the season.

Despite being out-shot 13-8 in the opening frame, the visitors were able to cash in at 18:24 on the power play, when Britney Selina knocked in her 14 th goal of the season from the top of the goal mouth to give the Knights their first lead of the weekend. Kimberly McKenney and Genevieve Lavoie assisted on the goal.

Dahm was very much the reason that Clarkson held a 2-1 advantage after twenty minutes, as she stopped 12 of the 13 shots she faced in the period.

Though many would argue it is nearly impossible to be out-shot 16-5 in a stanza and come away with momentum, Guckian and the Saints would say otherwise after a raucous second period that saw the home team called for six penalties including a five minute major. Clarkson would in fact have five power play chances in the period, including over three full minutes of 5-on-3 action.

The Knights' offense peppered Guckian while working the puck around the Saints' zone at will. However, some gutsy penalty killing by senior Chelsea Grills, junior Alison Domenico and sophomores Britni Smith and Courtney Sawchuk would keep Clarkson off the score board in the period. Guckian was phenomenal in the period, robbing several Knights from point blank range, including a full-split glove save on Daris Tendler.

The St. Lawrence penalty killing unit's stand fired up the home team's crowd and the Saints' bench.

"We took a few undisciplined penalties throughout the game that put us in a tough spot," said Saints head coach Paul Flanagan. "Our penalty killers did a great job in keeping us in the game, and obviously Meaghan made some clutch saves in several big spots to swing the momentum in our favor."

With the St. Lawrence faithful very much behind their team in the third period, it seemed like only a matter of time before the Saints capitalized on a chance of their own. The Scarlet and Brown turned to their scrappy line of Emard, Batchelor and Roach to create a few chances, and the trio responded. Batchelor roped a shot on goal that seemed to be under Dahm's leg pad. However, the official never lost sight of the puck, and allowed play to continue. After several jabs in the crease, the puck finally crossed the goal line allowing the crowd to erupt, with the score tied at 2-2 at 10:31 of the third period.

Guckian and Dahm continued to play at high levels throughout the remainder of the game, with each goalie turning away several close calls. Perhaps Clarkson's best bid to win the game came with less than 30 seconds remaining in regulation, when Gaudet got behind the Saints' defense and skated after the puck at the

St. Lawrence blue line with no one between her and the goaltender. However, Guckian unexpectedly came 25 feet out of her net to knock the puck away, and though Clarkson regained control and fired a long wrist shot towards the empty net, the goaltender got back to her crease in time to make a diving save.

The overtime session was not without dramatics either, as Clarkson took the opening four shots in the frame, forcing Guckian back on her heels. However, a penalty on the Knights with only 2:50 remaining would basically end their hopes of completing the upset. St. Lawrence then nearly capitalized on the chance, as Smith had a wide open chance in front of Dahm, but fired just wide of the far post. The shot would be the final sustained opportunity for either team to earn the win, as both North Country rivals would settle for a 2-2 tie.

"Anytime we face Clarkson, emotions are going to be running high as both teams want to get a big win," added Coach Flanagan. "Though we would've obviously liked to get two wins, we'll take three points against a talented team like that."

Guckian (15-7-1) finished with five saves in both the third and overtime periods, while Dahm (7-1-1) closed with 26 saves for the game. Clarkson managed 14 shots on 11 power play chances, while St. Lawrence was 0-for-3 with the extra attacker and was whistled for 27 penalty minutes.

The Saints, who reached the 20-win plateau for the eighth consecutive season, will hit the road next weekend to battle the CNY schools, Colgate and Cornell. The puck will drop on the Saints and Raiders at Starr Rink in Hamilton, NY on Friday, February 8th at 7:00pm.