ANOTHER FRUSTRATING ONE AT APPLETON AS COLGATE WINS 2-1

Feb. 8: Senior center Tyler Burton scored two goals in the first 3:38 of the game and goaltender Mark Dekanich made them stand up for a 2-1 win over St. Lawrence University in a ECAC Hockey game at Appleton Arena Friday night.

 

Dekanich made 12 of his 26 saves in the third period as the Saints dominated play after the first period, but continued to be plagued by a lack of goals on their home ice. It was the fourth time this season the Saints have been held to a single goal at home as their home ice record fell to 3-8-2 overall and 1-6-1 in league play.

 

Colgate, now 11-12-4 overall and 5-7-3 in league play, swept the season series with the Saints with the win and gave coach Don Vaughan, a former SLU player and assistant coach his 250 th career win. The Saints are now 9-14-4 overall and 4-9-2 in league play.

 

"We have four or five good shifts and then we take ourselves out of it," said Saint coach Joe Marsh. "We've said it over and over, but the margin of error is so slim."

 

The Saints found themselves in a 2-0 hole early in Friday’s game as Burton scored two goals in the first 3:38 of the game. His first of the night and 14 th of the season came after a Saint defensive giveaway at the top of the faceoff circle to the right of Saint goalie John Hallas. Jesse Winchester picked up the puck and fed Burton, who snapped the puck past Hallas before he could react. Burton then scored his second of the night, again off a pass from Winchester, redirecting the puck just under the crossbar as he cut in front of the Saint cage.

 

Hallas, who had no chance on either of the Raider goals, turned in another strong performance in net in his seventh appearance of the year and finished with 25 saves.

 

St. Lawrence turned up the intensity in the second period and while they had an apparent goal waved off when it was ruled that the puck was directed into the net by a skate, they did cut the Colgate lead to 2-1 on a power play goal at 12:34. Defenseman Shawn Fensel took a pass in the slot from Mike McKenzie and rifled a shot just under the crossbar with Brock McBride also assisting to put the Saints on the board. It was the third goal of the season for Fensel, who is among the leading scorers overall for ECAC defensemen.

 

The Saints continued to press in the third period, outshooting Colgate 12-8 and creating several outstanding scoring chances, but couldn’t get another shot past Dekanich. Jared Ross banged one off the post with 10 minutes to go and Dekanich came up big on scrambles several times in the last ten minutes. The Saints pulled Hallas for an extra attacker while on a power play with 50 seconds left, but could not come up with the equalizer.