Akstull Powers Saints To Victory

Final	1	2	3	Final
Quinnipiac (3-23-5, 2-12-5)	1	1	0	2
St. Lawrence (21-7-3, 15-3-1)	1	3	2	6

Scoring Summary
1st - 13:03	Kelley Davies (Quinnipiac)
1st - 18:22	PP - Tara Akstull (St. Lawrence)
2nd - 11:35	Marianna Locke (St. Lawrence)
2nd - 15:24	PP - Kirsten Roach (St. Lawrence)
2nd - 19:01	Carson Duggan (St. Lawrence)
2nd - 19:32	Kate Wheeler (Quinnipiac)
3rd - 17:08	Alison Domenico (St. Lawrence)
3rd - 19:53	Tara Akstull (St. Lawrence)

Quinnipiac	St. Lawrence
G: 2 Players (#11, #13 - 1) A: 3 Players (#3, #17, #18 - 1) Sh: Trudy Reyns - 5 Sv: Tia Wishart - 21	G: Tara Akstull - 2 A: 3 Players (#8, #9, #13 - 2) Sh: Vanessa Emond - 4 Sv: Brittony Chartier - 25

TEAM STATISTICS	Quinnipiac	St. Lawrence
Power Plays	0 for 3	2 for 2
Shorthanded Goals	0	0
Penalties (min)	2 (4)	3 (6)
Shots on Goal	27	27
Face Offs Won	20	32

full stats

Boxscore

CANTON, NY - Junior center Tara Akstull scored two goals and assisted on a third as St. Lawrence University's womens hockey team turned back Quinnipiac 6-2 in a ECAC Women's Hockey game at Appleton Arena Friday night and added a little cushion to its league lead.

The Saints, 21-7-3 overall and 15-3-1 in ECAC Hockey gained two points on second place Dartmouth, which was upset at Colgate 2-1 on Friday and now holds a three point lead on Dartmouth and Harvard with three games to play in the regular season. The Saints host Princeton Saturday and play at Harvard and Dartmouth to conclude the regular season.

Quinnipiac, 3-23-5, 2-12-5, made the Saints work for their victory, coming out of the first period 1-1 and cutting a 4-1 Saint lead to 4-2 late in the second. It stayed a 4-2 game until the final three minutes of regulation when the Saints put it away with two late goals.

"It took a little while for us to get into the kind of pace we were looking for," said Saint coach Chris Wells. "Quinnipiac worked very hard and kept coming at us from start to finish, but I thought we were able to establish ourselves a little bit offensively in the latter half of the first period and then we picked it up from there."

The Bobcats hit the scoreboard first in the game as they took advantage of a Saint turnover deep in SLU's offensive end. Danielle Alexieff controlled the loose puck and got it to Kelley Davies, who was all alone right in front of Saint goalie Brittony Chartier and snapped the puck between Chartier's pads and the post at 13:03 of the first.

The Saints tied the game on a power  play with 1:38 to play in the first period as Karell Emard took the puck from defenseman Britni Smith and sent a pass across the crease to Akstull, who scored her 11th of the year on a pretty backhand to the upper corner over the shoulder of  Quinnipiac goalie Tia Wishart.

"Tara played a great game," said Wells. "The first goal was a beautiful shot and she paid the price on the second one, getting hit as she shot it, but she stayed with it to get the goal."

The Saints took control midway through the second period and scored three straight goals to build a 4-1 lead.

Captain Marianna Locke scored her tenth of the season off a faceoff in the Bobcat zone as she won the draw back to Smith, took the return pass and wristed the puck past Wishart at 11:35. Sophomore Kristen Roach scored her third goal of the year on a power play as she put back a rebound of a shot by Alley Bero with Michelle Zimmerman also assisting at the 15:24 mark and senior Carson Duggan scored the third goal of the  period for the Saints, her 20th of the year, as she tucked the puck between Wishart and the post with 59.3 seconds to play in the period with Bero and Vanessa Emond assisting. The goal was the 99th of her career for Duggan, a women's program record and just two short of the St. Lawrence record for career goals held by men's All America Brian McFarlane.

Quinnipiac kept itself in contention with a late second period goal as freshman Chelsea Illchuk scored her fourth of the season from Elyse Cole and Kate Wheeler with a shot from the short slot which beat Chartier on the stick side.

Chartier came up with some big saves early in the second period as Quinnipiac continued to pressure the Saints and SLU was finally able to cap it off with two goals late in the period.

Allison Domenico scored her 13th of the year on a pretty passing play down low, as Locke fed her the puck with Akstull also assisting and Domenico tucked it around a sprawled Wishart at 17:08. Akstull then scored her second of the night from Locke and Domenico, taking Locke's pass and firing into the net as she was being leveled by a Bobcat defender.

The Saints will take on Princeton in another big ECAC Women's Hockey game at 4 p.m. Saturday.