Trio of Saints Score Two As Scarlet And Brown Knock-off Cornell

Photo by Beverly Schaefer

Box Score

CANTON, N.Y. -- The No. 7/6 St. Lawrence University women's hockey team had a trio of players score two goals as the Saints moved into second place in the ECAC Hockey standings with a 6-2 victory over Cornell University at Appleton Arena on Friday night. Juniors Marianna Locke and Carson Duggan each scored twice for the Scarlet and Brown, along with rookie Karell Emard, who netted her third and fourth goals of 2007-08.

St. Lawrence improved to 16-7-0 (9-2-0) on the season and won their 18th straight game against the Big Red dating back to January 21, 2001, and senior Sabrina Harbec used a three-assist night to become the first player in St. Lawrence University history to eclipse the 200-career point mark. Meanwhile, Cornell dropped to 8-8-1 (5-5-1) on the year after they were unable to crawl out of a 3-0 first period deficit.

Locke wasted very little time in tallying her two goals, collecting them both in the opening 6:19 of regulation. The Brasher Falls, NY native opening the game's scoring at 3:46 when she tucked a rebound behind Cornell goalie Jenny Niesluchowski, and added her second goal of the period only 2:33 later when she re-directed a slap shot off the stick of senior defenseman Annie Guay, tipping it over the goaltender's right shoulder. The goals were Locke's 10th and 11th of the season and quickly gave St. Lawrence control of the game.

The home team continued to bombard Niesluchowski with shots, finishing the first period with an 18-5 advantage in shots on goal. St. Lawrence would build their lead to 3-0 at 15:42 on the power play, when Duggan got on the board with her 15th of the year. Guay again got the play started when her slap shot from the blue line hit the left post and bounced back in front of the net to Locke, who found Duggan for the backhanded shot in the slot. The goal would force Cornell head coach Doug Derraugh to pull Niesluchowski for Kayla Strong after making 14 saves in 15:42 minutes.

Though Cornell appeared out-matched in the first 20 minutes, the Big Red would respond in a big way early in the second period, tallying two goals in the first five minutes to pull to within one at 3-2. Caeleigh Beerworth got the visitors on the board only 43 seconds into the second period when she and teammate Brittany Forgues worked a pretty give-and-go to beat Saints' goalie Meaghan Guckian to bring the score to 3-1.

Liz Zorn would then pull Cornell to within a goal at 3-2 with her 11th goal of the season at 4:59 . Forgues again started the scoring chance when her shot towards Guckian was deflected behind the goaltender by Zorn from just outside the goal mouth. The Big Red appeared to have tied the game only moments later, but Guckian stopped the puck on the goal line to keep her team ahead by one.

The momentum would shift once again, however, when Emard made her presence felt almost midway through the second period. After Emard nearly scored on a breakaway chance, she regained her composure and scored her first of the game at 8:51, deflecting another shot from Guay through Strong's pads to make the score 4-2.

Sophomore Tara Akstull, who assisted on Emard's first goal, won the ensuing face-off and the Saints turned up ice again, with Akstull firing a shot on goal first, followed by Emard. The Richelieu, Quebec native grabbed her own rebound and tucked it behind Strong at 9:02 , only 11 seconds after her first goal to put St. Lawrence ahead 5-2 after two periods.

The two teams continued to play hard throughout the third period, with the Scarlet and Brown holding a 10-4 edge in shots. The lone goal of the period came with only 1:43 remaining in the contest when Duggan tallied her second of the game when she snapped a one-timer behind Strong after a pretty centering pass from Harbec. The goal was the 74th of Duggan's career, only three shy of the University goal scoring record.

"I thought we came out with a lot of energy in the first period and built a nice lead, but they're a talented team and I give them a lot of credit for the way they responded early in the second period," said Saints head coach Paul Flanagan. "Karell (Emard) really picked us up when the momentum had swung the other way."

Guckian finished with 18 saves in the game and improved to 13-7-0 on the season, while Niesluchowski took the loss for Cornell, dropping to 4-6-0 . St. Lawrence scored the only power play goal of the night, finishing 1-for-5 while Cornell was 0-for-2 with the extra skater.

St. Lawrence will look to pick up their first weekend sweep since early December when they welcome Colgate University to Appleton Arena tomorrow, Saturday, January 19. The puck will drop on the Saints and Raiders at 4:00pm .