SAINT SCORING DROUGHT CONTINUES AS UNION TAKES 3-1 WIN

Jan. 25: St. Lawrence’s offense continued to hibernate Friday night as the Saints scored just one goal in a game for the third straight time and lost 3-1 to a streaking Union team.

 

Union’s Torren Delforte snapped a 1-1 tie at 6:59 of the third when he caught the Saints in a bad line change and tucked one under the crossbar. The Dutchmen have now won a program record seven straight and have not lost in the new year. They hold the ECAC’s longest current win streak.

 

The Dutchmen, 11-8-2 overall and 6-3-2 in ECAC Hockey, added a late goal with 1:10 to play as Jason Walters hit the net from near his own blue line as Saint goalie John Hallas was skating off for an extra attacker. Union snapped a six-game losing streak to the Saints and won at Appleton Arena for the first time since 2004. The Dutchmen have not lost in the new year.

 

St. Lawrence, playing at home for the first time in 53 days, lost its third straight and scored only one goal for the third straight time. The Saints, 9-12-3 overall and 4-7-2 in the league, scored the game’s first goal when senior wing Jordan Hack put a rebound away after Union goalie Corey Milan kicked out an initial shot at 15:59 of the first period.

 

Milan shut them down the rest of the way despite five power play opportunities for SLU. The Saints have now gone scoreless in their last 18 power play chances dating back to a 8-3 win at Dartmouth two weeks ago.

 

“Union played an outstanding game. They’re a well-coached young team and are obviously gaining some confidence in their streak,” said Saint coach Joe Marsh. “I thought we played hard, but you could see that we were pressing. We’re almost trying to hard to make things happen and need to sit back and let it come to us."

 

Saint goalie John Hallas turned in a solid game in net for the Saints, turning back 32 shots. He had a big series of three saves early in the second period, but could not come up with the answer on the fourth consecutive shot by Union as Matt Cook scored his sixth of the year to tie the game at 3:33.

 

“Hallas was excellent and made some big saves in the series just before they scored. We needed a clear and just couldn’t come up with it. He didn’t have a chance on the second goal either, and the last one is effectively an empty netter even though he was technically on the ice,” Marsh added.

 

Union, outshot the Saints 29-15 over the second and third periods, took advantage of a bad St. Lawrence line change to take the lead as Mike Schreiber found Delforte streaking into the Saint zone and Delforte deflected the puck over Hallas’ shoulder and into the upper corner. Sophomore Jason Walters iced it as defenseman Brendan Milnamow interecepted a Saint pass and sent the puck to Walters, who hit the net from his own blue line as Hallas was halfway to the bench for the extra attacker and could not get back to stop the shot at 18:50.