SAINTS AND RIVERHAWKS BATTLE TO 3-3 TIE

Dec. 10: Barry Goers scored a power play goal with 4:13 to play in regulation time to pull the University of Massachusetts at Lowell to a 3-3 tie with St. Lawrence University Sunday afternoon and that was the way it stayed at the Saints and Riverhawks played to a 3-3 overtime draw at the Tsongas Arena.

The Saints, playing their fifth game in ten days, are now 8-7-1 after their first tie of the season while UMass.-Lowell is now 3-8-4.

The Riverhawks had lost six straight heading into Sunday’s game, but three of the six were against New Hampshire and two others against Vermont and Maine, all nationally ranked teams.

“We would have preferred a win, but coming out of this building with a tie isn’t that bad,” said Saint coach Joe Marsh. “Lowell has obviously been competitive despite their record and I thought both teams played pretty well this afternoon. We haven’t had a lot of luck in this building, but I was very pleased with our response when we fell behind in the second period.”

The Saints earned their first point against the Riverhawks in five games at the Tsongas Arena and have not won against Lowell in Lowell since a 3-2 win at the old Billerica Forum in 1994.

While the Riverhawks had a 11-6 edge in shots on goal in the first period, the Saints actually had the better scoring chances. Tom Bardis was stopped one-on-one by UML goalie Carter Hutton with just over five minutes to play in the period and Mike McKenzie had a shot go off the post and stay out of the net on a two-on-one with Sean Flanagan with 3:45 to play in the first period.

The Riverhawks put the Saints in a hole early in the second period, scoring a pair of goals in a span of less than two minutes. Jason Bergeron scored the first as he walked out from behind the Saint net and banked a backhander into the net off Justin Pesony’s pad at 2:35. Paul Worthington then scored his second of the year on a power play one-timer from the middle of the faceoff circle, sneaking the puck just under the crossbar at 5:10 for the 2-0 lead.

The Saints scrambled out of the hole in short order, scoring two goals exactly a minute apart and then taking the lead just under 4:30 later.

Sean Flanagan snapped a lengthy Saint power play draught when he scored his third of the year, picking up a rebound of a shot from the center slot by Casey Parenteau and tucking it past Hutton with Mike McKenzie also assisting at 12:28. It was the first Saint power play goal in their last 18 chances.

Kyle Rank tied it exactly a minute later as he finished off a three man rush, burying a shot from point blank range after a cross-crease pass from Charlie Giffin with Jordan Hack also assisting and the Saint power play cashed in again at 18:00 as Parenteau took a pass from Drew Bagnall and gunned a shot which went wide of the net, but the puck came off the end boards and right to McKenzie, who tapped it in for his sixth of the year and a 3-2 Saint lead.

The Riverhawks tied the game on their sixth power play chance of the game as Barry Goers picked the puck up in the deep slot and wristed one toward net. Pesony got a piece of it with his glove, but couldn’t control the puck as it fell into the net at 15:47 to tie it at 3-3.