SAINTS SCORE FOUR IN THIRD TO BEAT UNH 6-5

Jan. 6: St. Lawrence University’s hockey team scored three goals in the final 7:04 to overcome a 5-3 New Hampshire lead and staged a 6-5 upset of the seventh-ranked Wildcats to get the 2008 portion of the season off to a great start Sunday afternoon.

 

The Saints won for just the second time since 1981 in Durham, and their second time ever in spacious Towse

BOGOSIAN EARNS 2ND ECAC ROOKIE HONOR Jan. 7: St. Lawrence University freshman center Aaron Bogosian has been selected as ECAC Hockey Rookie of the Week for the second time this season after helping the Saints to a 6-5 upset of 7 th-ranked New Hampshire on Sunday.   Bogosian had a goal and set up the game-tying goal as the Saints came from down 5-3 in the third period to win with three goals in the last 7:06 of regulation. The Saint rookie from Massena, who played junior hockey at Cedar Rapids last season, has scored a goal in each of his last three games and has scored six of his eight points on the season in his last three starts.   Bogosian, who has played in all 19 games thus far for the Saints, was also named Rookie of the Week after a Saint split at Ohio State in early December.

Rink at the Whittemore Center. The previous win at the Whittemore season, a 4-2 decision in December of 2002, snapped a five-game winless streak in Durham.They also won for the first time this season when trailing after two periods as they outscored UNH 4-2 in a wild third period.

 

“This was a big challenge for us in terms of the quality of opponent and playing in a building that has traditionally been difficult to win in,” said Saint coach Joe Marsh. “I was very pleased with what we saw in terms of competitiveness and intensity. We had a couple of coverage mistakes which led to goals, but we responded very well after falling behind.”

 

The Saints trailed by a goal heading into the third period, but Zach Miskovic tied the game as he crashed the net and put back a rebound for his fourth of the year just 1:02 into the third period.

 

UNH then scored two goals within 24 seconds as the Saints left Wildcat forwards all alone in front of goalie Alex Petizian. Freshman Danny Vranek put UNH in front 4-3 at 5:37 and Danny Dries was all alone in front of Petizian to score his second of the game at 6:01.

 

Kain Tisi took over for Petizian after the fifth UNH goal, but the rest of the period was ruled by the Saint offense as a power play goal put them back into contention. Brock McBride scored his second of the game at 12:44 from Matt Generous and Mike McKenzie at 12:54.

 

The line of Jared Keller, Aaron Bogosian and Jordan Hack collaborated to tie the game at 16:12 as Bogosian set up Hack’s initial shot and while UNH goalie Brian Foster kicked that out, Keller controlled the rebound, skated across the crease and flipped the puck past the goaltender while going down.

 

Kevin DeVergilio then finished off another pretty offensive play 1:22 later to give the Saints the lead as he was at the far post to put away Charlie Giffin’s rebound after Jeremiah Cunningham started the game-winning play with a goal-mouth pass to set up Giffin’s initial shot.

 

UNH pulled Foster for an extra attacker in the final minute, but Tisi, who ended up with the win, stopped the only shot that got through the Saint defense to preserve the win.

 

The Saints got off to an excellent start, but had to weather late UNH pressure to come out of the first period with a 2-1 lead.

 

McBride opened the scoring 4:36 into the game when he converted a rebound of a shot by McKenzie into his fifth goal of the season. McKenzie took the puck from defenseman Shawn Fensel, faked a pass and shot from a tough angle which Foster kicked out, but McBride was right there to bury the rebound. It went to 2-0 just under six minutes later when Jared Ross tipped the puck ahead to Bogosian and the Saint rookie scored his third goal in as many games with a bomb along the ice which beat Foster inside the far post at 10:02.

 

Petizian, who didn’t see a lot of action in the first half of the period, did in the second and came up with a number of big saves among 12 in the first 20 minutes. The Wildcats cashed in on their second power play chance of the game when Matt Fornataro fed defenseman Craig Switzer in the slot and Switzer buried his third of the year at 18:44 to make it a 2-1 game, and UNH was buzzing in the final minute, but the Saints held them off to come out of the first period with the 2-1 lead.

 

St. Lawrence held UNH without a shot for the first 10:24 of the second period, but the explosive Wildcats scored goals 34 seconds apart to take a 3-2 lead just after the midpoint of the period.

 

Freshman Danny Dries, a teammate of the Saints’ Bogosian at Cedar Rapids last season, tied the game on a deflection which snuck just under the crossbar at 11:43 for his second collegiate goal, and after Foster turned away good Saint pressure at the other end, Bobby Butler and Jerry Pollastrone worked a two-on-one rush to perfection with Pollastrone hitting Butler at the far goal post for a slam-dunk and a 3-2 lead at 12:17.