HALLAS, POWER PLAY COMBINE TO SNAP SKID

Feb. 9: St. Lawrence scored three power play goals and a fourth with a delayed penalty being indicated and goalie John Hallas made 11 of his 26 saves in the third period as the Saints snapped a six-game winless streak with a 4-2 ECAC Hockey victory over Cornell at Appleton Arena Saturday night.

 

St. Lawrence, now 10-14-4 overall and 5-9-2 in league play, won for the first time at home since a Dec. 1 victory over Clarkson and scored three power play goals in a game for the first time this season. Cornell lost both ends of its North Country trip after a 4-1 loss at Clarkson on Friday and is now11-9-3 overall and 9-6-1 in ECAC Hockey.

 

The Saints, who had been having trouble scoring at home, broke out to an early lead when junior defenseman Jared Ross found the upper corner over the shoulder of Cornell starting goalie Ben Scrivens on a shot from the deep slot just 1:23 into the game. SLU made it a 2-0 game at 15:14 with an extra attacker on the ice as a delayed penalty was being indicated on the Big Red. Brock McBride came off the bench and took a pass from Jordan Hack before snapping the puck past Scrivens.

 

“Those were two big plays for us in a lot of ways,” said Saint coach Joe Marsh. “Getting off to a good start and a two-goal lead changes the whole complexion of the game and was a big confidence boost. If you can get a lead on a team like Cornell, it changes some of the things they like to do.”

 

St. Lawrence scored twice in the last minute of a major power play called when defenseman Ross was knocked out of the game by a hit to the head early in the second period. Ross was taken off on a stretcher and was obviously shaken up by the hit, but he was not seriously injured.

 

Jared Keller scored his third of the year from Shawn Fensel at 5:42 as he skated into the short slot and snapped a shot over Davenport’s shoulder, and after a Saint faceoff win, Keller fed Travis Vermeulen, who scored his fifth of the year from right in front at 6:10 for a 4-0 lead.

 

Cornell got one back on a four-on-three power play at 9:53 when freshman Riley Nash scored his ninth of the year and third of the season against the Saints from close range to make it 4-1 after two periods.

 

The Saints had a chance to add to their lead when Hack broke away with the second period clock running out, but Cornell backup goalie Troy Davenport, who came in after the fourth Saint goal, stuffed him to keep the Saint lead to three heading into the final period.

 

Nash scored his second of the game, again on a power play, at 2:22 of the third, and while the Big Red pressured throughout the third, they couldn’t get closer. They pulled their goaltender for an extra attacker with 3:08 to go in regulation time and were awarded a power play with a minute to go, but while they spent most of the final three minutes in the Saint zone, Halas kept them off the board.

 

Hallas, who had played sparingly and had only one career start prior to this season, made back-to-back starts for the first time in his career and stopped 51 of 55 shots he faces in the two weekend games.

 

“We weathered the storm between the penalty kill and Cornell pressure in the third period, and "H" made some big saves for us,” said Marsh. “We played five pretty good periods of hockey this weekend and it was nice to come out of it with something to show for the effort.”