UMASS STYMIES SAINTS IN 3-1 WIN

Sophomore goaltender Dan Meyers made 13 of his 22 saves in the third period and the University of Massachusetts skated to a 3-1 win over St. Lawrence University in an NCAA Division I hockey game at Appleton Arena Saturday night.

 

The Minutemen, now 1-1, snapped St. Lawrence’s two-game win streak to open the season, using tight defense and a couple of offensive breaks to drop the Saints to 2-1 on the season.

 

“UMass is a very solid team and is coming off an NCAA appearance last season. They are very well coached and play a tight defensive game. They took away a lot of second and third chances tonight, and really kept a lid on our offense until the third period,” said Saint coach Joe Marsh.

 

“Our guys put out a lot of effort and played hard, but we couldn’t get to the rebounds at some key times and UMass took advantage of a couple of mistakes on our part and turned them into goals,” Marsh added.

 

The Minutemen dominated the first period, but couldn’t get the puck past Saint goalie Kain Tisi until Alex Berry picked up a puck which was poked away from a Saint defender in the short slot and walked in one-on-one with the goaltender. Berry buried his first of the year at 17:12 for the game’s first goal, but the Saints had an immediate response.

 

Junior Casey Parenteau won the draw following the UMass goal and headed to the net. Sophomore Sean Flanagan made a great pass in front and Parenteau tipped it past Minuteman goalie Dan Meyers for his third of the year and a 1-1 tie just 22 seconds after the Minutemen had taken the lead.

 

“That was important for us because it got us right back in the game,” said Marsh. “That kind of response to a goal is just the kind of thing we are looking for.”

 

Tisi stopped a penalty shot try by Will Ortiz of the Minutemen with 11:22 to go in the second period to keep it a 1-1 game, but UMass took the lead just under two minutes later when Cory Quick fed freshman Brian Keane on a two-on-one down low after a Saint coverage mistake and Keane tucked the puck between Tisi and the post for his first collegiate goal.

 

Junior Chris Davis scored a shorthanded goal to give the Minutemen a two-goal cushion at 4:11 of the third, walking in on Tisi after the Saints played the puck with a high stick and hesitated in chasing it down. Tisi got his pad on the shot, but it trickled through and into the back of the net.

 

St. Lawrence was held to 10 shots through the first two periods and turned up the offensive pressure in the third, but the UMass defense blocked several shots and cleared rebounds from in front of Meyers to protect the lead and the win.

 

The Saints will open ECAC Hockey League play next Saturday at arch-rival Clarkson.

 

PESONY SOLID AS SAINTS TOP PROVIDENCE

 

Oct. 12: Junior defenseman Matt Generous snapped a 1-1 tie with a goal from the blue line and junior wing Casey Parenteau scored just under two minutes later to cushion the lead as St. Lawrence University skated to a 4-1 NCAA Division I college hockey victory over Providence College Friday night.

 

The Saints, now 2-0, added an empty net goal to hand the Friars the loss in Providence’s first official game of the year.

 

The two teams combined for 78 shots in a wide-open end-to-end affair which included just five total penalties between the two teams. Senior goaltender Justin Pesony made 34 saves to pick up the victory in his first start since December of 2006.

 

“Justin played an outstanding game and I know the whole locker room is very happy for him,” said Marsh. “He has handled the whole thing of going from the starter to a back up extremely well and has been a huge positive influence on the team over the last two seasons. We know we have three quality goaltenders and we are going to try to get them all playing time early in the season.”

 

Providence took the early lead just as a Friar power play expired as goaltender Sims caught the Saints making a change of penalty killers and sent a long pass ahead to Matt Germain. Germain fed Pierce Norton who walked in and tucked the puck around Justin Pesony at 6:18 for the 1-0 lead. It was the only shot to get past the Saint captain, who set a record for appearances as a sophomore, but played in only six games as a junior as then freshman Alex Petizian emerged as the Saint starter in the second half of last season.

 

The Saints tied it at 8:41 when sophomore Jeremiah Cunningham tipped a pass by senior wing Charlie Giffin out of the air and past Sims for his first of the year with Jordan Hack also assisting. SLU appeared to have taken the lead when Kevin DeVergilio put a shot into the upper corner of the net, causing the goal light to flash, but the goal was waved off.

 

SLU took the lead 8:23 into the third period off a faceoff win in the Providence end. Junior center Brock McBride won the faceoff and Kevin DeVergilio tapped the puck back to Generous at the point. Generous fired the puck along the ice and inside the far post on a screened Sims to make it 2-1.

 

“ Providence blocked a lot of shots, but we kept on working and were able to get some looks and create some space,” said Marsh. “It was another pretty well played game for so early in the season. I thought both teams had some excellent scoring chances and both played pretty well defensively in front of their goaltenders despite the high number of shots. It was a good end-to-end game.”

 

Junior defenseman Shawn Fensel started the play which gave the Saints a two-goal cushion as he blocked a Providence shot and sent the puck ahead to sophomore Sean Flanagan. Flanagan in turn fed Parenteau, who walked in on Sims all alone and tucked the puck past him at 10:12 for his second goal of the season. Fensel and Alex Curran set up senior forward Charlie Giffin for an easy empty net tap in at 19:22 to complete the scoring.

Sims finished with 39 saves for the Friars, who have not won a road opener since 1994.