Box Score

CANTON, NY -- The St. Lawrence University women's hockey Class of 2008, playing in their final regular season home game at Appleton Arena, helped the Saints continue their winning ways with a dominant 9-1 victory over Quinnipiac on Saturday afternoon. Each of the home team's seniors recorded at least one point in the victory, while Meaghan Guckian earned her 20th win of the season.

The Scarlet and Brown (25-8-1, 18-3-1) grabbed a 2-0 lead after the opening period thanks to rookie Kirsten Roach and senior Sabrina Harbec. Roach knocked her 6th goal of the year past Quinnipiac goaltender Jamie Miller at 4:49 of the first, while Harbec made it 2-0 at 12:59 on the power play when she dangled two defenders for her 15th of the year. Senior Annie Guay, who is the University's all-time leader in goals, assists and points by a defenseman, picked up a helper on Harbec's first of the contest.

Quinnipiac did well to only be trailing by two after one period, as they were called for six penalties in the first 20 minutes. However, they were unable to stop St. Lawrence's potent offensive attack, as the Saints picked up three more goals in the second period and at one point built their advantage to 5-0.

Junior Alison Domenico took a pass from fellow classmate Marianna Locke and buried her 15th of the year a mere 1:43 into the second period, while junior Jordan Pyers scored her third of the season only 44 seconds later to make the score 4-0 in favor of St. Lawrence. Pyers, who stuffed a rebound past Miller for her first goal, then flashed a great move, avoiding a defender and fooling Miller for her second consecutive goal of the period at 8:43 for a 5-0 lead.

Quinnipiac would end Guckian's shutout bid at the 13:00 minute mark of the second period, when Danielle Alexieff fired a shot that the goalie thought was underneath her. However, the puck trickled across the goal line to make the score 5-1 heading to the second intermission.

Through two periods, St. Lawrence held a decisive advantage in shots on goal, as Miller made 35 saves to Guckian's ten.

With 7:05 gone in the third period and the Saints up 5-1, senior Sarah Callan, playing in her fourth career game, circled a pass behind the Quinnipiac net to fellow classmate Chelsea Grills. Grills then quickly centered a pass right on the tape to Harbec, who one-timed a shot past Miller for her 15 th of the season. The assist was Callan's first career point, as she was given the puck following the goal which made the score 6-1.

St. Lawrence continued to pour on the offense throughout the third period, adding three more goals to bring the final score to 9-1. Locke scored her 18th of the season at 11:56 with assists going to rookies Michelle Zimmerman and Karell Emard. Locke would then pick up an assist on Domenico's second of the game at 15:10, which saw the Nepean, Ontario native re-direct a shot over Miller's left shoulder to make the score 8-1. Guay would then put the finishing touches on a great team effort at 18:21, when she scored her 4th of the season off a centering pass by sophomore Tara Akstull.

"I think we carried our momentum over from yesterday's game against Princeton, as we continued to make good decisions offensively, but continued to block a lot of shots and protect Meaghan (Guckian) on the defensive end," said Saints head coach Paul Flanagan. "We played one of our most thorough weekends of the season, and will need to have that same edge next weekend when Yale comes to Canton."

St. Lawrence finished 1-of-9 on the power play, while Quinnipiac was 0-of-6 with the player advantage. Meanwhile, the Saints finished with an impressive 51-15 edge in shots on goal. Guckian improved to 20-8-1 on the season and picked up the victory on "Senior Day," while Miller suffered the loss despite making 42 saves and fell to 3-17-4.

The Yale Bulldogs, who knocked off Rensselaer on Saturday by the score of 3-2, clinched the No. 7 seed in the ECAC Hockey Tournament with a loss by Cornell. The Saints, who own the No. 2 seed, will host Yale in a best-of-three series next weekend, with game one on Friday, February 29th at 4:00pm. Game two will then be Saturday, March 1st at 2:00pm with game three on Sunday if necessary at 2:00pm.