Union Holds Off Saint Rally for 4-3 Win
in
by:
Whit HaynesDerek Keller scored his fourth of the year in Friday's game against Union
Union College built a 4-1 lead through two periods and then held off a late third period comeback by St. Lawrence to capture a 4-3 ECAC Division I hockey victory at Appleton Arena Friday night.
Freshman goaltender Keith Kincaid earned his first collegiate win with a 20 save night and Mario Valery-Trabucco and Kelly Zajac each had a goal and an assist for the Dutchmen, who improve to 4-3-3 overall and 1-0-2 in the ECAC. St. Lawrence sustained its first home loss of the season and is 5-4-1 overall and 1-2-0 in league play.
The Saints struggled to generate a consistent offense through two periods against the Dutchmen, who blocked shots throughout the game and limited scoring chances against their rookie goaltender.
"Union played a very good game," said Saint coach Joe Marsh. "They work hard and are a very well coached team. They seemed to get a piece of just about every shot and took away a lot of our passing lanes with a strong defensive effort.
"We hurt ourselves with some penalties and Union capitalized on the power play in the second period. We played better in the third, but we couldn't dig all the way out of the hole."
Union scored the only goal of a fast-paced first period as sophomore center Kelly Zajac set up the scoring play with a pass from behind the Saint net to junior defenseman Brock Matheson in the left faceoff circle. Matheson's shot from the circle glanced off a Saint defender's stick and went over SLU goalie Alex Petizian's shoulder at 7:39. The goal snapped a shutout streak of 93:10 for Petizian against the Dutchmen.
The Dutchmen made it a 2-0 game 3:57 into the second period when senior Mario Valery-Trabucco scored his fourth of the season on a power play with just three seconds to go on the man advantage. The Saints got that one back when Brandon Bollig took the puck away from a Union defender behind the Union net and fed Alex Curran, who put his second of the season past Kinkaid at 5:07.
The Saints then killed off a lengthy five-on-three Union power play, but the Dutchmen converted a two-on-one as Brian Yanovitch scored his fourth of the year at 10:25 to make it a 3-1 game and sophomore center Kelly Zajac scored just 12 seconds into the fourth Union power play of the second period at 15:36 to make it a 4-1 game after two.
Sophomore Brandon Bollig cut the Union lead to 4-2 at the 13 minute mark of the third period as he tipped a shot from the point by freshman defenseman George Hughes past Kincaid, and the Saints made it interesting when senior defenseman Derek Keller scored his fourth of the year on a shot from the point on a power play with 2:59 to play, but the Saints could not come up with the equalizer despite pulling their goaltender for an extra attacker with 1:39 to go in regulation.
Kain Tisi played the third period for the Saints in goal and did not allow a goal on six Union shots. The Dtuchmen finished with a 29-23 edge in shots on goal for the game and were two for eight on the power play, while the Saints were one for five. SLU played a good portion of the third period without freshman standout Kyle Flanagan, who sustained an injury early in the period.