Saints' Outburst Sinks Colgate

CANTON, N.Y.  --   Senior defenseman Annie Guay and junior forward Alison Domenico each had one goal and two assists in helping the No. 7/6 St. Lawrence University women's hockey team earn a weekend sweep with a 5-3 victory over Colgate University on Saturday afternoon at Appleton Arena. All of the Saints' offense came in the second period, as the team tied their season high for goals in a stanza.

St. Lawrence improved to 17-7-0 (10-2-0) on the campaign and to 13-3-1 against Colgate in the all-time series, while the Raiders dropped to 8-11-3 (5-5-2) on the season.

The two squads skated to a scoreless first period, with the Saints holding an 11-7 advantage in shots on goal. However, the best scoring chance of the first frame went to Colgate with just over 3:30 remaining in the period. Elin Brown snuck between the Saint defenders at the blue line and walked in on St. Lawrence goalie Maxie Weisz. Though Weisz made the initial save on Brown's backhanded attempt, the puck came to Jacquie Colborne, who had a wide open net with the goalie out of position. However, Colborne was unable to get control of the puck and fanned on the open-net chance.

The second period was very much the opposite of the first in that it included six goals and ten minor penalties. Domenico opened the game's scoring at 1:17 of the second period after Colgate's Sam Hunt was whistled for a minor penalty only 32 seconds into the frame. Senior Chelsea Grills got the play started with a perfect cross ice pass to a wide open Tara Akstull. Though Raiders' netminder Lisa Plenderleith was able to make the first save, Domenico grabbed the rebound and lit the lamp for her 9th of the season.

Colgate would bounce back 4:36 later when Hunt would redeem herself with her 11th goal of the season at 5:53 to even things up at 1-1. Marissa Dombovy sent a long slap shot from the blue line towards Weisz, but before reaching the goal, it hit a St. Lawrence defender in front of the net. The puck bounced directly to Hunt who quickly lifted it under the crossbar to knot the score.

The goal only seemed to motivate St. Lawrence, who claimed the No. 2 spot in the ECAC Hockey standings on Friday night with a 6-2 win over Cornell. Grills would put the Saints back on top on the power play at 10:03 of the period to give St. Lawrence a lead they would not relinquish, with assists going to Guay and senior Sabrina Harbec. Guay, who finished with six points in the two home games, fired a shot on goal that Plenderleith lost the handle on in front of the goal mouth where Grills was stationed. The Stittsville, Ontario native tucked the puck behind the Colgate goalie to put the Saints on top 2-1.

Guay would add her 2nd of the season only two minutes later when she took a pass from Domenico, skated in front of the Colgate bench and fired a laser slap shot from just behind the left circle. The shot ricocheted off Plenderleith's glove, but continued into the goal for the 3-1 St. Lawrence lead.

With the period winding down, the Saints would add two more to carry a 5-1 lead into the locker room after two periods. Sophomore defenseman Britni Smith used a screen in front of Plenderleith to score her 3rd goal of the season at 17:53, while junior Carson Duggan scored her team-leading 17th goal of the year only 1:25 later. Guay's slap shot again helped the Saints, as a rebound came directly to Duggan in the slot, and the

Ma-Me-O Beach, Alberta native stuffed the puck under Plenderleith's pads for the 5-1 advantage.

Colgate, a 2007 ECAC Hockey Tournament semifinalist, showed no quit in the third period and scored twice to make things interesting in the final minutes. With her team again skating on the power play, Hunt took matters into her own hands, scoring an unassisted goal at 11:36 to make the score 5-2. Hunt fired a slap shot from just outside the right circle that Weisz couldn't handle to cut the visitor's deficit to three.

Brown would then get into the scoring for the Raiders at 17:47 thanks to a fortunate bounce in the slot. Brown sent a slap shot that seemed to be headed well wide of the goal until it caromed off a St. Lawrence defenseman's shin-guard and between Weisz's pads to bring the score to 5-3 . Laura Jansen was credited with an assist on Colgate's final goal.

Though the Raiders perhaps had an outside chance of trying to tie the game with some heroics, their hopes came to an end when Hunt was whistled for a penalty with 2:05 remaining in the game. St. Lawrence was able to run out the clock and collect their tenth conference win of the season.

Each team was able to find success on the power play, as Colgate finished 2-of-8 with the extra attacker while St. Lawrence was 3-for-5. Plenderleith fell to 7-8-2 on the season in a 25-save effort, and Weisz remained unbeaten in her career at St. Lawrence, improving to 4-0-0 on the season and 8-0-0 in her career.

The Saints will look to continue their three-game winning streak when they visit the Capital District for a pair of ECAC Hockey contests next weekend. The Scarlet and Brown will next take on the Rensselaer Engineers on Friday, January 25 at 7:00pm in Troy, NY.