BOGOSIAN IS TOP ROOKIE, PESONY CANDIDATE FOR NATIONAL AWARD

Dec. 10: Saint freshman forward Aaron Bogosian was named ECAC Hockey Rookie of the Week and senior captain and goaltender Justin Pesony was chosen as one of the 20 candidates for the Lowes Senior Class Award on Monday.

 

Bogosian scored his first career goal and assisted on two others in Saturday’s 5-4 win over Ohio State in Columbus to earn his first Rookie of the Week honor.

 

Pesony is one of 20 candidates for the Lowes Senior Class Award which is presented annually to the NCAA Division I student athlete of the year in eight sports. The award focuses on classroom, character, community and competition.

 

This is the second year of the award in hockey and Pesony joins Colgate’s Mark Dekanich, Clarkson’s Nick Dodge, Dartmouth’s Nick Johnson, RPI’s Jake Morissette, Cornell’s Topher Scott, Princeton’s Landis Stankievech and Colgate’s Jesse Winchester among the ECAC Hockey candidates for the award.

 

SAINTS GAIN SPLIT WITH 5-4 WIN

Dec. 8: Freshman forward Aaron Bogosian had a goal and set up two others as St. Lawrence University’s men’s hockey team battled its way to a 5-4 win over Ohio State Saturday night and a split of its weekend series.

 

The Saints got two even strength goals and assists on a shorthander from the line of Bogosian, Jordan Hack and Jared Keller and goaltender John Hallas had a number of big saves among 24 stops for the road win. The Saints, who will play six more road games in succession, improve to 6-8-3 on the season while Ohio State is now 5-12-1

 

“I think everyone was pretty disappointed in last night’s loss, but I was pleased with the response today,” said Saint coach Joe Marsh. “That was a step in the right direction in terms of the way we want to play on the road, and certainly the way we want to compete. I was very pleased with our special teams play, and John Hallas had some big saves in key situations.”

 

Things did not start well for the Saints as the Buckeyes scored just 1:07 into the first period. Freshman defenseman Corey Toy took a shot from the center point at the Saint blue line and Corey Elkins deflected it past Saint goalie John Hallas for his second goal of the year.

 

The Saints officially tied it up at 12:46 of the first period, but the goal was actually scored up to a half minute earlier. Aaron Bogosian put the puck past OSU goalie Joseph Palmer, but it was in-and-out and neither the goal light nor the referee indicated a goal. Referee Tim Kotyra reviewed the video on the next stoppage in play and the goal was awarded with Jordan Hack and Zach Miskovic picking up assists.

 

Ohio State regained the lead with 1:40 to go in the first period when defenseman Shane Sims rattled one off the post and the rebound went right to freshman Patrick Schafer, who tucked it back past Hallas before the Saint goalie could react.

 

The Saints came back to tie it just 2:30 into the second period as the line of Hack-Bogosian and Jared Keller cashed in again. Bogosian sent the puck behind the OSU net where Keller picked it up, fought off a defender and relayed it to Hack. Hack walked out and snapped a wrist shot from a tight angle which zipped over the shoulder of Joseph for Hack’s fifth goal of the year and second of the weekend.

 

A foiled breakaway by Brock McBride ended up in a Saint power play which produced a 3-2 Saint lead later in the period. McBride was hooked by Chris Reed before he could get a shot off, but the Saints cashed in on the ensuing power play. Charlie Giffin took the puck from Shawn Fensel and relayed it out to Jared Ross at the left point. Ross sent a hard shot along the ice which went inside the far post for his first goal of the year at 15:36, putting the Saints in front.

 

The Saints took a two-goal lead 2:15 into the third period when Hack took the puck from Bogosian with the Saints skating shorthanded and headed toward the OSU net. Zach Miskovic crashed the net from the point and redirected Hack’s goal mouth pass past the goaltender for his third of the year and a 4-2 Saint lead.

 

Hallas made a big save with the glove on Tommy Goebel on a walk-in to keep it a two-goal game, but the Buckeyes got one back from John Dingle off a rebound put-back after Hallas made a big pad save at 6:10.

 

The Saints went back up by two with their second power play goal of the night at 10:28 as Kevin DeVergilio fed Casey Parenteau who walked out and backhanded his eighth of the year under the blocker of Joseph to give the Saints a 5-3 lead.

 

The Buckeyes made it interesting as Goebel went coast-to-coast on a power play and fired a hard shot into the net off Hallas’ shoulder at 12:39, but Hallas came up with some big saves down the stretch, including one on Goebel on a two-on-one with 1:20 to go, and the Saint defense was able to kill off the final 1:18 with Joseph out for an extra attacker to preserve the win.

 

OHIO STATE RALLY OVERTAKES SAINTS 3-2 IN OVERTIME

 

Dec. 7: Kyle Reed scored with 2:36 to go in the third period and Peter Boyd scored 54 seconds into overtime as Ohio State came from two goals down against St. Lawrence University to win 3-2 Friday night for its first home win of the season.

 

It was the sixth one-goal loss of the season for the 5-8-3 Saints, who will conclude the weekend series with the Buckeyes on Saturday night.

 

The Buckeyes went into Friday’s game at 4-11-1 overall, but five of the 11 losses were to Miami, Minnesota and Michigan and they were coming off a split of the series at Michigan, having won game one of that set 3-2. Ohio State, which plays in 17,600 seat Value City Arena, the largest in college hockey, also had been struggling at home, going 0-6-0 on home ice going into the Friday game.

 

“That was a tough one for us,” said Saint coach Joe Marsh. “We knew coming in that Ohio State was a much better team than its record and I thought both teams competed well tonight. We had some chances to build a bigger lead, but they made a couple of big plays at the end.”

 

Both the game-tying and game-winning goals came after big saves by Alex Petizian, who became the first Saint goalie to start back-to-back games this season. Petizian made a great save on Reed at the side of the net, but the rebound went right back onto Reed’s stick to tie it.

 

The game winner came after Petizian stuffed Sergio Somma as Ohio State had the extra attacker on with a delayed penalty being indicated on the Saints in the overtime, but Boyd picked up the rebound and roofed it to win the game.

 

“You can’t fault Alex on any of the goals,” said Marsh. “They all came from close range with guys alone in front. We needed to give him some more defensive help in those situations.”

 

The Saints played a very solid first period at both ends of the ice in period one and came out of the first 20 minutes with a 2-0 lead.

 

The first goal came 4:40 in and snapped a lengthy power play scoring drought for the Saints. Mike McKenzie scored his second in as many games as he picked up the rebound of a shot from the point which was kicked out by OSU goalie Joseph Palmer and put it right back past the goalie. Brock McBride also assisted on the power play goal, the first for the Saints in 19 opportunities dating back to a 4-4 tie with Brown in mid-November.

 

Jordan Hack scored the Saints’ second goal, again on a rebound as he took the puck off the pads of Palmer after the Buckeye goalie made a good save on a shot by Nick Pitsikoulis. Hack slammed the rebound back into the net at 8:57 with defenseman Derek Keller picking up the second assist and his first point of the year on the play.

 

One of those strange hops of the puck which have haunted the Saints through the first half of the season allowed Ohio State back into it early in the second period. The puck bounced off the stick of a Saint defenseman at the SLU blue line as he tried to send it up ice and Tommy Goebel and Tom Fritsche of OSU ended up with a two-on-none break on Petizian. Fritsche pulled Petizian to him and then snapped the pass back across the goalmouth for Goebel who snapped his eight of the season under the crossbar at 4:10.