SAINTS FINALLY SCORE SOME GOALS, BUT RPI PREVAILS 6-3

Jan. 26: Freshman Chase Polacek scored one goal and assisted on four others and senior goaltender Jordan Alford made 32 saves as Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute snapped an 11-game losing streak with a 6-3 win at St. Lawrence in an ECAC Hockey game Saturday night.

 

RPI, which had not won since a Dec. 4 game at Harvard nearly matched its goal total for the month with its six goal night and scored more than four for just the second time this season. The Engineers are now 9-15-3 overall and 4-7-2 in ECAC Hockey.

 

The Engineers struck twice in a span of just over two minutes midway through the first period to take a 2-0 lead. Chase Polacek set up the first goal of the game when he blew past a Saint defenseman and walked in on goalie Alex Petizian. While Petizian made the first save, Scott Halpern pounced on the rebound and tucked it into the cage at 11:19 for a 1-0 lead. Just 1:20 later it was 2-0 as Tyler Helfrich was alone in front of the Saint cage and a Saint defensive turnover behind their goal line put the puck right on his stick for his fourth goal of the year.

 

St. Lawrence had a chance to get back into it with 1:56 of five-on-three power play to start the second period, but the Saints managed only one shot on goal as Andrew Lord came up with some big defensive blocked shots and the Saints were forced to pass around the perimeter.

 

The Engineers had only three shots on goal in the second period and did not get its first shot on goal until 7:37 had elapsed in the period. Their second shot found the net when junior wing Matt Angers-Goulet broke in on the wing and banked a shot off the back of Petizian’s pads for his seventh of the season at 11:29.

 

St. Lawrence started to generate some offensive life midway through the second period, but the Saints, who had scored just one goal in each of their previous three games, couldn’t get one past Alford. A shot by Jeremiah Cunningham spun along the goal line and somehow stayed out of the net with just over 14 minutes gone and Kevin DeVergilio was robbed one-on-one by Alfred for 4:13 to play.

 

The Saints, who have now lost four straight and are 9-13-3 overall and 4-8-2 in the league, made things interesting in the third period.

 

First freshman Aaron Bogosian scored his fifth of the season with the Saints killing off a major power play 1:03 into the third period to cut the lead to 3-1. RPI got that back when Peter Merth scored his second of the season later in the man advantage to make it a 4-3 game, but the Saints scored two within 2:15 to make it a 4-3 game.

Casey Parenteau got his ninth of the season at 10;13 with a shot which fooled Alford as Parenteau stormed down the left side and flipped the puck at the net, and then Jeremiah Cunningham scored his third of the year at 12:28 with a rebound put back off an initial shot by defenseman Zach Miskovic.

 

“Hopefully we can build on what we managed to get started offensively in the second half of the game,” said Saint coach Joe Marsh. “We’ve got a non-league game on the road against a very good Niagara team coming up and then it is eight straight league games to end the season, so we have some time to make some improvements and try to climb the ladder.”

 

Andrew Lord came out of the penalty box and reestablished a two-goal RPI lead at 16:54 with his fifth of the year against Saint backup goalie Kain Tisi, who took over to start the third period. Polacek then completed the scoring at 18:05, hitting the empty net from just outside the blue line for his sixth of the season.

 

Petizian had nine saves in the first two periods for the Saints while Tisi added five as the Saints outshot RPI 35-20.