Saints Earn Weekend Split with 3-2 Victory Over Ohio State

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Tara Freeman
First-year student Michelle Ng scored a power play goal against Ohio State on Saturday.

Nov. 21: The St. Lawrence University women's hockey team put on an impressive performance on Saturday against the Ohio State University in Columbus, OH, earning a weekend split behind a 3-2 win on the USCHO.com "Game of the Week."  The Scarlet and Brown outshot the Buckeyes 41-21 to improve to 6-5-4 (3-3-1) on the season.

Ohio State, which rallied for a 4-3 win on Friday, falls to 6-7-3 (5-6-1) on the season after the loss. 

"I thought we played tough in both games this weekend, but today, we moved the puck as well as we have all season," said St. Lawrence head coach Chris Wells.  "Brittony (Chartier) was terrific down the stretch with a couple great saves when the goalie was out."

St. Lawrence built a 2-1 lead after 20:00 minutes of action behind goals from sophomore Vanessa Emond and first-year student Michelle Ng.  Emond picked up her 10th goal of the season 5:21 into the first stanza, with assists from rookie Kelly Sabatine and senior assistant captain Britni Smith.  Though Ohio State evened the score at 9:47 when Rachel Davis scored her third goal of the season, Ng responded with 10 seconds left in the period to give her team a 2-1 lead.  Ng beat Buckeye netminder Chelsea Knapp for a power play goal, with Sabatine and Smith again assisting on the goal.

Sabatine would extend the Saints' lead to 3-1 early in the second period with an unassisted goal, her fourth of the season, at 2:34.  Knapp did well to keep her team within striking distance with 12 saves in the period.  Her play allowed the home team to cut their deficit to one at 3-2 after two periods when Melissa Feste scored her third goal of the weekend at 18:03, with an assist going to rookie stand-out Hokey Langan.

Despite making only nine total saves in the first two periods, senior goaltender Brittony Chartier delivered a clutch third period to allow the Saints to celebrate a 3-2 non-conference victory.  The Saskatoon, SK native made 10 saves in the final frame, including two key stops when Ohio State pulled Knapp for an extra skater.  The crucial stops allowed her team to skate away with one-goal win.

St. Lawrence finished with a 1-of-6 mark on the power play and did not take a penalty in the game.  Chartier's big third period gave her a total of 19 saves to earn the victory while Knapp made 38 stops in a losing effort.

The Saints will have next weekend off before returning home after a six straight road games to face ECAC Hockey foes Princeton and Quinnipiac.  St. Lawrence and Princeton will open the weekend action on Friday, December 4th at 3:30pm.