Saints Too Much for Quinnipiac

Oct. 26: Junior forward Alison Domenico scored twice and senior Sabrina Harbec pulled to within two points of the St. Lawrence University career scoring record with two assists as the No. 5/6 St. Lawrence University women's hockey team defeated Quinnipiac by the score of 6-1 at TD Banknorth Sports Center to kick-off the 2007-08 ECAC Hockey regular season.

The Saints ( 3-2-0 , 1-0-0) used a barrage of 43 shots to over-match the Bobcats ( 1-2-1 , 0-1-1), who managed only 14 attempts on St. Lawrence goaltender Meaghan Guckian.

Domenico wasted little time in giving the Saints a 1-0 advantage, as she scored second goal of the season only 2:28 into the game after Quinnipiac's Jessica Buttaro took a checking penalty only 38 seconds into the affair. Assisting on the goal were senior co-captains Chelsea Grills and Kerri Wallace.

However, that is all the offense the Saints would muster in the first period, as Quinnipiac goaltender Tia Wishart withstood the pressure and turned away 12 shots in the opening 20 minutes. Guckian had a much easier time of it in her end of the ice, as she stopped one Bobcat shot, the only she'd face in the first period.

Sophomore Tara Akstull scored a goal in her third consecutive game at 7:22 of the second period to give the Scarlet and Brown a 2-0 lead. Grills again assisted on the goal, as did rookie defenseman Kirsten Roach. However, Wishart continued to shine and keep her team in the game with 14 saves during the period. Unfortunately, it was the final shot of the period that would elude Wishart and be the end of her team's chance at an upset.

With the two teams skating 5-on-5, Domenico was able to beat Wishart with a mere one second remaining in the second period to send St. Lawrence into the locker room after two periods with a 3-0 lead. Akstull was credited with an assist along with senior defenseman Annie Guay.

The goal let the air out of Quinnipiac's sails, as the Saints scored two goals less than three minutes into the 3 rd period to build a 5-0 advantage. Junior Carson Duggan took a feed from Harbec and tallied her fourth goal of the season only 19 seconds into the final period for the 4-0 lead. Only 2:26 later, first year forward Kyrsten Venasse lit the lamp for the first time in her collegiate career, scoring an unassisted goal at 2:45 of the third for St. Lawrence's fifth goal.

Guckian came into the Quinnipiac game needing only one shutout to break Rachel Barrie's university record of 14 shutouts. However, the Bobcats ended the Victor, NY native's hopes of clinching the record on their home ice when Kallie Flor scored a power play goal at 7:57 of the third period to end the shutout bid and make the score 5-1. Trudy Reyns assisted on the goal for Quinnipiac, who managed nine shots in the third period to St. Lawrence's 14.

Sophomore defenseman Britni Smith capped off the scoring with her second career goal with only 2:32 to play in regulation. Harbec assisted on the goal, the 107 th helper of her career, inching to within two points of tying Rebecca Russell's career point record.

Wishart finished with 37 saves in net for the Bobcats, while Guckian stopped 13 Quinnipiac bids to pick up her second win of 2007-08. Quinnipiac's power play goal was the first scored on St. Lawrence this season, as the Scarlet and Brown entered the weekend play with a perfect 27-for-27 mark on the penalty kill.

St. Lawrence will look for their first weekend sweep of the season when they face off with Princeton, a team that has been a thorn in their side each of the past two seasons, tomorrow, Saturday, October 27th. The puck will drop on the Saints and Tigers at 4:00pm in Princeton, NJ.