GIFFIN, HALLAS SHINE AS SAINTS TOP PRINCETON 4-3

Nov. 9: Senior Charlie Giffin finished off a three-on-one shorthanded rush with his fifth goal of the season with 4:25 to play and graduate student goalie John Hallas won his second start of the 2007-08 season with a 31-save effort as the Saints knocked Princeton from the ranks of the unbeaten with a 4-3 win at Hobey Baker Rink Friday night.

 

Hallas became the Saint stopper for the second time this season as his solid performance in net snapped a two-game Saint losing skid and helped SLU to its first win of the season in league play.

 

Princeton entered the game as one of two unbeaten teams in the country at 3-0-0, joining Miami, the nation’s top-ranked team, and enjoying its best start since the 1979-80 season. The Tigers also cracked the national rankings for the first time in several seasons, coming in at 18 th in the USCHO poll and were riding a two-game home win streak against the Saints, who last won at Hobey Baker Rink in January of 2004, 6-4.

 

Hallas and his Saint teammates came through with a solid road performance and got the big play late in the game on a major power play kill to improve to 4-5-0 overall and 1-3-0 in ECAC Hockey.

 

Brock McBride had been sent off for a hit from behind major at 12:26, but the Saint penalty killing unit did not give the Tigers any good looks through the first four minutes of the lengthy man advantage. Jeremiah Cunningham started the game’s decisive play when he picked off a Princeton pass at the Saint defensive blue line and headed up ice with Zach Miskovic and Giffin with just one Princeton player back. Cunningham took the puck deep, waited until Princeton goalie Zane Kalemba slid across to his side of the net and sent a goal-mouth pass to Giffin at the opposite post, who tucked it for his fifth of the year and the game winner at 15:35.

 

The Saints then did an outstanding job of pressuring in the Princeton end in the final two minutes and chewed a minute off the clock before a high sticking violation in the offensive zone gave Princeton a faceoff deep in the Saint end and a chance to pull Kalemba for an extra attacker. The Saint defense, however, did not allow Princeton a shot on goal in the final 29 seconds to preserve the win.

 

“That was a great road win for us,” said Saint coach Joe Marsh. “John Hallas turned in another big performance in goal and that was a huge play for us on the shorthanded rush. You never want to be in a situation where you have to kill off a major, but we did it as well as you can,” Marsh added.

 

The Saints jumped on top 7:46 into the game when Giffin turned around a Princeton rush and sent the puck to Matt Generous just outside the Saint defensive zone. Generous hit a streaking Kevin DeVergilio with a pass and DeVergilio went one-on-one with Kalemba, tucking it around the sprawling goaltender for his third of the year.

Princeton came back to tie it on its first full power play opportunity of the game at 14:24 as captain Mike Moore flipped the puck over Hallas’ shoulder in a scramble in front of the Saint cage.

 

The Saints regained the lead just after the expiration of a power play early in the second period. SLU forced a faceoff in the Princeton end and Sean Flanagan won the draw to Nick Pitsikoulis, who snapped a shot inside the post and into the upper corner for his first collegiate goal at 6:33 to make it a 2-1 game.

 

Hallas kept the Saints in front early in the third as he stuffed Princeton’s Lee Jubinville one-on-one after a Princeton bounce off the side boards had set Jubinville up all alone from point blank range.

 

The Tigers did tie the game 3:08 into the third when Cam McIntyre scored his sixth of the season with a shot just inside the far post, but the Saints went back up 3-2 as rookie Jared Keller scored his first collegiate goal after a Princeton defender turned the puck over deep in his own end and Keller found himself one-on-one with Kalemba just at the top of the crease. Keller zipped a shot past the goaltender on the glove side at 6:28 to give the Saints the lead again.

 

Princeton scored it second power play of the night on a redirection at the post by Brendan Kushniruk at 11:51 and it didn’t look good for the Saints when McBride was called for the major just under a minute later, but the Saint penalty killers came through again.

 

“You can’t say enough about the way Hallas has stepped up for us,” said Marsh. “He hasn’t had many chances to start, but he has faced some very good offensive players every day and has worked very hard on his game. He made some tremendous saves again tonight in a win we really needed.”

 

The Saints will face another tough road test Saturday when they play at Quinnipiac, a 4-1 winner over Clarkson in Friday action.