McKenzie Passes 100 as Saints, RPI Tie 3-3
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Wally JohnsonMike McKenzie figured in all three goals at RPI Friday night.
St. Lawrence senior Mike McKenzie figured in all three goals, passing the 100 point plateau in the process as the Saints skated to a 3-3 tie with Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute at the Houston Field House Friday night.
The Saints maintained a two-point lead on RPI in the tight race at the upper end of the ECAC standings and will take a 14-9-5 overall record and a 8-4-3 league mark into Saturday's game at Union. Both Union and Yale earned victories Friday night, moving a point ahead of the Saints who are now fourth in the league standings.
Goalie Kain Tisi surrendered more than two goals in a game for just the second time since January 1, but made some big stops to help the Saints earn the tie.
Tisi finished with 18 saves and the Saints were a perfect six-for-six on the power play against an explosive Engineer offense.
"All in all, that was a pretty solid performance," said Saint coach Joe Marsh. "RPI is a very explosive team offensively and I thought we did a good job of containing them. Our guys broke up a lot of passes and blocked a lot of shots to keep the shot count down in a game which was much faster paced offensively than the stats might indicate."
The Engineers scored the game's first goal as the Saints failed to take care of the puck behind their own net and Marty O'Grady jammed home a rebound of a shot by Brandon Pirri at 8:28. SLU tied the game at the 13:00 mark as Mike McKenzie found defenseman Derek Keller with a pass near the bottom of the right faceoff circle and Keller pulled RPI goalie Allen York out of the net before tucking the puck behind him for his eighth of the year. Nick Pitsikoulis also assisted on the play with McKenzie reaching 100 career points with his helper.
RPI regained the lead at the 15:33 mark when Alex Angers-Goulet was all alone at the post as the Saints made a coverage mistake and tucked the puck inside the far post for his fourth of the season. The Saints had several chances to tie it over the final four minutes and had a late power play, but the Engineers came out of the first period with a 2-1 lead.
That late power play did pay off just 59 seconds into the third as the Saints put on a show in the RPI end of the ice in the first five minutes of the period. Aaron Bogosian scored the tying goal, his fifth of the season as he took a centering pass from McKenzie and stuffed the puck past York on the power play as Jeff Caister also assisted on the play.
The Saints controlled the puck in the RPI zone as if on a power play in back-to-back shifts following the tying goal and got the go ahead score when Derek Keller blasted a shot from the right point which McKenzie tipped under the crossbar for his seventh of the year with Jeremiah Cunningham earning the second assisting at 3:49."We did a very good job possessing the puck and the defense stepped up at the other end and took away a lot of opportunities for RPI."
"I thought we played an outstanding second period at both ends of the ice," Marsh said.
Tisi made seven saves in the second period and received solid support from his defensive corps to keep the Engineers off the board and Saints headed into the third period with a 3-2 lead.
RPI tied the game 6:45 to play as defenseman Jeff Foss scored on a shot which appeared to deflect off a stick on its way to the goal. Pirri and Paul Kerins assisted on the tying goal.
It stayed tied the rest of the way as both Tisi and York came up with some good saves to keep the offenses in check.