Akstull Joins Saints' Century Club in Win Over Brown

Photo by Tara Freeman

Final	1	2	3	Final
St. Lawrence (11-7-6)	1	2	0	3
Brown (2-13-4)	1	1	0	2

Scoring Summary
1st - 03:13	Alena Polenska (Brown)
1st - 16:28	Kelly Sabatine (St. Lawrence)
2nd - 01:48	SH - Michelle Zimmerman (St. Lawrence)
2nd - 04:35	Tara Akstull (St. Lawrence)
2nd - 16:45	Erin Connors (Brown)

St. Lawrence	Brown
G: 3 Players (#7, #8, #16 - 1) A: 4 Players (#3, #7, #14, #18 - 1) Sh: 3 Players (#6, #14, #16 - 6) Sv: Brittony Chartier - 10	G: 2 Players (#9, #11 - 1) A: Jacquie Pierri - 1 Sh: 2 Players (#11, #22 - 4) Sv: Katie Jamieson - 44

TEAM STATISTICS	St. Lawrence	Brown
Power Plays	0 for 3	0 for 4
Shorthanded Goals	1	0
Penalties (min)	4 (8)	3 (6)
Shots on Goal	47	21
Face Offs Won	26	21

full stats

PROVIDENCE, RI -- St. Lawrence University senior captain Tara Akstull scored the game-winning goal and added an assist on Friday night, leading the Saints' women's hockey team to a 3-2 ECAC Hockey victory against Brown. The two points brought Akstull's career point total to 100, making her the 16th player in University history to reach the "Century Club."

St. Lawrence, which managed to outshoot the hosting Bears by a 47-21 margin, improves to 11-7-6 (7-3-2) on the season with the victory, while Brown falls to 2-13-4 (0-10-3).

"Tara (Akstull) has been an outstanding and hard-working forward for four years, and we're proud of her accomplishment," said St. Lawrence head coach Chris Wells.

Brown struck first in Friday night's contest, as Alena Polenska scored the opening goal of the game on St. Lawrence senior goalie Maxie Weisz only 3:13 into regulation. Jacquie Pierri assisted on the goal that gave the Bears an early advantage.

First-year student Kelly Sabatine would respond with her seventh goal of the season in the latter stages of the opening frame to send the game to the first intermission tied at 1-1. Sabatine took a pass from classmate Michelle Ng and scored on Brown netminder Katie Jamieson to level the scoring at 16:28.

The goal swung the momentum in the Saints' favor to start the second period, as they scored back-to-back goals only 2:47 apart to take a 3-1 lead. Junior defenseman Michelle Zimmerman gave the Scarlet and Brown its first lead of the game only 1:48 into the stanza with a short-handed goal. Akstull, who assisted on Zimmerman's goal, then scored at 4:35 for her 100th collegiate point to give St. Lawrence a 3-1 advantage with sophomore Vanessa Emond and senior assistant captain Britni Smith assisting.

The Bears would pull to within a goal at 3-2 with 16:45 left in the second period when Erin Connors scored an unassisted goal on senior assistant captain Brittony Chartier, who replaced Weisz midway through the period.

Chartier would need to turn in a perfect five-save third period in order to protect her team's lead in the third period, as Jamieson made 15 stops to keep the Saints' offense from adding to its cushion. Though she was rarely tested, the Saskatoon, SK native and her team skated down 6-on-4 for the final 34 seconds of the game and were able to hang on for a key conference win.

Weisz was credited with the win after making nine saves in nearly 30:00 minutes of action, while Chartier stopped 10 shots in relief. Jamieson closed 44 saves including a game-high 16 in the second period for the Bears. Neither team was about to create much offense on the power play, as the Saints finished 0-for-3 and Brown was 0-for-4.

The Saints, unbeaten in their last four games, will look to extend that streak when they travel to New Haven, CT tomorrow, Saturday, January 23, to square off with Yale University at 4:00pm.