Boxscore

CANTON, N.Y. -- The No. 6 St. Lawrence University women's hockey team, donning specially designed pink jerseys as part of ECAC Hockey's "Pink at the Rink" promotion, exploded for five goals in the second period, including two from first-year student Kirsten Roach en route to a 5-3 victory over Yale University at Appleton Arena on Friday night.

The Saints (22-8-1, 15-3-1) locked up the No. 2 seed in the conference tournament, as Harvard clinched the 2007-08 regular season title. Meanwhile, Yale fell into a tie for 8 th place in the standings after falling to 9-11-6 (6-9-4).

Though St. Lawrence managed to out-shoot the Bulldogs in the opening frame 9-6, it was the visitors who went to the locker room with a 1-0 cushion. While skating on the power play, Yale's Bray Ketchum collected a rebound in front off a shot from teammate Sarah Tittman and tucked it under St. Lawrence senior goaltender Meaghan Guckian for a 1-0 lead. The goal was Ketchum's 8 th of the season, while Tittman picked up her 9th assist.

The home team would respond quickly in the second period, however, as Roach scored her first of the game at 4:25 to even things up. With a delayed penalty coming on Yale, Guckian skated to the bench to for the extra attacker. The puck found first year student Michelle Zimmerman at the blue line, and she tossed a shot on goal that was stopped by Yale's Shivon Zilis. However, the rebound came to the top of the goal mouth for Roach, who stuffed it in for her 3rd of the season.

Yale wouldn't miss a beat, though, and tallied their second power play goal of the night only 1:51 later to regain the lead at 2-1. After a great effort by Maggie Westfal to keep the puck in the St. Lawrence zone, the puck came to Ketchum in the left circle, and she snapped a shot past Guckian's glove for her second of the game.

The goal may have put Yale ahead, but it served as a wake-up call to the Saints, who quickly rattled off four consecutive goals in a span of 3:52 to build a 5-2 lead at the end of two periods. Junior Alison Domenico got the run started on the power play with her 12th of the season at 12:53 thanks to a beautiful pass from senior Kerri Wallace. Wallace corralled the puck along the right boards and sent a crisp pass into the slot where Domenico deflected it over Zilis' shoulder to tie the game at 2-2.

Roach picked up her second of the game less than a minute later at 13:44, when she again scored on a rebound in front to give the Saints their first lead of the game at 3-2. Junior Marianna Locke would then tack on an insurance goal only 1:12 later to make the score 4-2, thanks to a perfect behind-the-back pass from sophomore Tara Akstull that caught Zilis out of position and gave the Brasher Falls, NY native a wide open net for her 14th of the season.

To compound the problem for Yale, less than two minutes later senior Sabrina Harbec and junior Carson Duggan found themselves on a two-on-one chance in the offensive zone. There was little the Bulldog defenseman could do, as two of the top scorers in St. Lawrence history ran a precise give-and-go, with Duggan setting up Harbec for a tap-in goal, her 13th of the season, at 16:45 to cap the Saints' four-goal run. The assist was Duggan's ninth of the season, while senior Chelsea Grills was credited with her 22 nd helper of the year on the goal as well.

Though they were out-played in the second period, Yale continued to battle in the third and would not allow the home team to add to their lead. The Bulldogs would in fact make it a game at 17:44, when they scored their third power play goal of the night to make the score 5-3. Helen Resor banged in a rebound in front of Guckian across the goal line off a shot from Mandi Schwartz for her 6th goal of the season.

Despite pulling Jackee Snikeris, who replaced Zilis between the pipes to start the third period, for the remaining 1:54 of the game, Yale was unable to pull any closer and the Saints improved to 10-5-1 at Appleton Arena this season.

"I thought we played a great second period, and showed a lot of intensity, but we need to play the full sixty minutes," said Saints head coach Paul Flanagan. "I give Yale a ton of credit for playing hard and exposing our weak penalty killing tonight."

Yale finished 3-of-7 on the power play, while St. Lawrence was 1-of-4 with the extra skater and finished with a 33-28 advantage in shots on goal.

Guckian made 25 saves and improved to 17-8-1 on the season, while Zilis made 18 saves in a losing effort, falling to 3-8-3. Snikeris, who played a very solid third period, made 10 saves in her 18:06 minutes of action.

ECAC Hockey's "Pink at the Rink" will conclude tomorrow, with the game-used jerseys and coaches' ties being auctioned off on Monday to raise money for cancer research. For more information or to bid on a jersey, visit http://www.ecachockeycoachesvscancer.com/.

Meanwhile, the Scarlet and Brown will look to earn a weekend sweep while wearing the pink uniforms when they take on Brown University tomorrow, Saturday, February 16 at Appleton Arena. The puck will drop on the Saints and Bears and 4:00pm.