PETIZIAN, SAINTS BLANK WSU, 4-0

DETROIT, MI: Freshman goaltender Alex Petizian recorded his first collegiate shutout with a 25-save performance and St. Lawrence shook off some second period scoring frustration with a three-goal third period en route a 4-0 win over Wayne State Saturday night, snapping a three-game Saint losing skid.

 

The Saints, now 2-3, gained a split of their weekend series in Michigan and will open ECAC Hockey League play at Dartmouth and Harvard next week.

 

“That was a solid effort across the board,” said Saint coach Joe Marsh. “Alex did an outstanding job in goal in one of those games that you have to stay sharp in as a goalie. We had long stretches on offense, but then they came down and got a couple of bids and Alex did a great job of turning them away.”

 

Petizian became the first rookie goalie in Saint hockey history to record a shutout in his first career start. The only other Saint goaltender to shut out an opponent in the first start of the year was John Went in 1966-67 with a 7-0 win over Laval. Petizian also joins Derek Gustafson as the second Saint rookie to record a shutout in their second career appearance.

 

The Saints took a lead for the first time since the season opener at 14:49 of the first period when Mike McKenzie banked his second goal of the season off the post and into the net from point blank range just after a Saint power play had expired. Jared Ross took a shot from the point after taking a pass from Kyle Rank and the puck caromed around in front of Warrior goalie Brett Bothwell before McKenzie corralled it and tucked it home.

Petizian made the lead stand up through the rest of the period, making six of his 11 saves in the final five minutes of the first period.

 

The Saints had to kill off 4:49 of Wayne State power play in the first 6:30 of the second period, but actually outshot the Warriors while killing the penalties. The Saints ended up dominating the period, outshooting Wayne State 19-5, but couldn’t add to their lead. Bothwell came up big time and time again, but no save was bigger than a point blank glove stop on McKenzie on a power play with 24 seconds to go in the period. Petizian was no where near as busy in the second period, but he too had a big stop as he pinned a shot by Nate Higgins with his pads and kept it out of the net midway through the period to keep the Saints in front.

 

The Saints gained some breathing room on the scoreboard 6:02 into the third period when Charlie Giffin scored his second of the year off a rebound of an initial shot by Drew Bagnall. The Saints then cashed in on a power play 3:22 later when Brock McBride set up a power play goal with a quick pass back to the point where Jared Ross gunned the puck past a screened Bothwell for his third of the year and freshman Tom Bardis scored his first collegiate goal with 9.8 seconds to go on a quick rush into the Wayne State end and a shot from the top of the faceoff circle.

 

“The important thing tonight was that we out worked them for some loose pucks and created some chances. It was a little frustrating that we couldn’t finish off more plays in the second period, but the guys kept their heads up and did finish things off in the third,” said Marsh.