PROVIDENCE TURNS BACK SAINTS

PROVIDENCE, RI— Providence College scored three unassisted goals, one of them shorthanded in a 4-2 win over St. Lawrence in Providence Friday night.

 

It was a night in which the Saints again had a ton of chances on the power play, but couldn’t cash in other than one five-on-three chance in the second period.

 

“Obviously that is an area that we want to definitely improve because it is such a big part of the game,” said Saint coach Joe Marsh. “We had some good puck movement at times, but we lacked consistency on the power play and got beat to some loose pucks. You have to give Providence a lot of credit because they were very aggressive on the penalty kill and it paid off for them.”

 

The Friars scored the only goal of a fast-paced first period at the 9:23 mark when junior forward Jon Rheault came out from behind the net and tucked the puck between the pads of Saint goalie Kain Tisi on a wraparound for his first goal of the season.

 

The Saints had some chances, but were just missing on their passes in the first period. Providence outshot the Saints 12-6 with Friar freshman goalie Ryan Simpson stopping all six Saint shots on net.

 

Tisi finished his first full collegiate game with 31 saves including some big ones at key points in the game. “I was very pleased with the way Kain played tonight,” said Marsh. “I know he was disappointed in his first outing, but had a good week of practice and came out and played well tonight. I thought our effort was very good and we competed hard, but we need to be a little more protective of the puck.”

 

Kevin DeVergilio pulled the Saints even in the second period with two big plays. First he set up a five-on-three power play for the Saints when he walked in an drew the defense feeding the puck to a wide-open Kyle Rank who was hauled down by Marc Bastarcache to prevent a sure goal. DeVergilio then cashed in on the five-on-three as he took a pass from Zach Miskovic, head-faked as if to pass to the other side of the goal and snapped a shot past Simpson at 5:16 for his first goal of the season.

 

The Friars regained the lead at 11:40 when Colin McDonald finished off a three-on-one rush with his second goal of the season, putting the puck past a sprawled Tisi, who got a piece of the shot, but couldn’t keep the puck out of the net.

 

The Saints had two great chances to tie it again as Jeremiah Cunningham set up Charlie Giffin right in front with less than five minutes to play in the second, but Giffin’s shot rolled wide as a defenseman got back into him just as he shot. The other came on another feed by Cunningham, this one to Mark Wallmann with less than a minute to go, but Simpson got that one with his glove. Tisi had his share of action as well, making a point blank save on Chris Eppich with 40 seconds to go among nine saves in the second period.

 

SLU had a chance to tie it on a power play early in the third, but while Simpson left a rebound on a hard shot by Miskovic, the Friar defense was able to clear it before a Saint could get there. Providence took a 3-1 lead on a shorthanded goal on the Saints’ second power play chance of the period. The Saints tried to chip the puck deeper into the zone from the point, but the chip didn’t go anywhere and Rheault gathered it in and broke away, snapping a shot past Tisi at 5:47 despite a hook by a Saint defender.

 

Trailing 3-1, but with a power play chance and 2:42 to go, the Saints pulled Tisi for an extra attacker, but the Friars cashed in on that when Tony Zancanaro picked up a loose puck near the Providence blue line and skated into the Saint zone before hitting the empty net at 18:13 to make it a 4-1 game. The Saints got that back with the teams skating four-on-four when Jeremiah Cunningham put away his second of the year on a third rebound with Max Taylor and Charlie Giffin assisting ten seconds later, but they could get no closer.

 

The Saints are now off for a week before taking on Michigan State and Wayne State in Michigan.