GUAY AND DOMENICO STEER

NO. 7/6 SAINTS PAST COLGATE, 5-3

Jan. 19: Senior defenseman Annie Guay and junior forward Alison Domenico each had one goal and two assists in helping the No. 7/6 St. Lawrence University women’s hockey team earn a weekend sweep with a 5-3 victory over Colgate University on Saturday afternoon at Appleton Arena. All of the Saints’ offense came in the second period, as the team tied their season high for goals in a stanza.

St. Lawrence improved to 17-7-0 (10-2-0) on the campaign and to 13-3-1 against Colgate in the all-time series, while the Raiders dropped to 8-11-3 (5-5-2) on the season.

The two squads skated to a scoreless first period, with the Saints holding an 11-7 advantage in shots on goal. However, the best scoring chance of the first frame went to Colgate with just over 3:30 remaining in the period. Elin Brown snuck between the Saint defenders at the blue line and walked in on St. Lawrence goalie Maxie Weisz. Though Weisz made the initial save on Brown’s backhanded attempt, the puck came to Jacquie Colborne, who had a wide open net with the goalie out of position. However, Colborne was unable to get control of the puck and fanned on the open-net chance.

The second period was very much the opposite of the first in that it included six goals and ten minor penalties. Domenico opened the game’s scoring at 1:17 of the second period after Colgate’s Sam Hunt was whistled for a minor penalty only 32 seconds into the frame. Senior Chelsea Grills got the play started with a perfect cross ice pass to a wide open Tara Akstull. Though Raiders’ netminder Lisa Plenderleith was able to make the first save, Domenico grabbed the rebound and lit the lamp for her 9th of the season.

Colgate would bounce back 4:36 later when Hunt would redeem herself with her 11th goal of the season at 5:53 to even things up at 1-1. Marissa Dombovy sent a long slap shot from the blue line towards Weisz, but before reaching the goal, it hit a St. Lawrence defender in front of the net. The puck bounced directly to Hunt who quickly lifted it under the crossbar to knot the score.

The goal only seemed to motivate St. Lawrence, who claimed the No. 2 spot in the ECAC Hockey standings on Friday night with a 6-2 win over Cornell. Grills would put the Saints back on top on the power play at 10:03 of the period to give St. Lawrence a lead they would not relinquish, with assists going to Guay and senior Sabrina Harbec. Guay, who finished with six points in the two home games, fired a shot on goal that Plenderleith lost the handle on in front of the goal mouth where Grills was stationed. The Stittsville, Ontario native tucked the puck behind the Colgate goalie to put the Saints on top 2-1.

Guay would add her 2nd of the season only two minutes later when she took a pass from Domenico, skated in front of the Colgate bench and fired a laser slap shot from just behind the left circle. The shot ricocheted off Plenderleith’s glove, but continued into the goal for the 3-1 St. Lawrence lead.

With the period winding down, the Saints would add two more to carry a 5-1 lead into the locker room after two periods. Sophomore defenseman Britni Smith used a screen in front of Plenderleith to score her 3rd goal of the season at 17:53, while junior Carson Duggan scored her team-leading 17th goal of the year only 1:25 later. Guay’s slap shot again helped the Saints, as a rebound came directly to Duggan in the slot, and the

Ma-Me-O Beach, Alberta native stuffed the puck under Plenderleith’s pads for the 5-1 advantage.

Colgate, a 2007 ECAC Hockey Tournament semifinalist, showed no quit in the third period and scored twice to make things interesting in the final minutes. With her team again skating on the power play, Hunt took matters into her own hands, scoring an unassisted goal at 11:36 to make the score 5-2. Hunt fired a slap shot from just outside the right circle that Weisz couldn’t handle to cut the visitor’s deficit to three.

Brown would then get into the scoring for the Raiders at 17:47 thanks to a fortunate bounce in the slot. Brown sent a slap shot that seemed to be headed well wide of the goal until it caromed off a St. Lawrence defenseman’s shin-guard and between Weisz’s pads to bring the score to 5-3 . Laura Jansen was credited with an assist on Colgate’s final goal.

Though the Raiders perhaps had an outside chance of trying to tie the game with some heroics, their hopes came to an end when Hunt was whistled for a penalty with 2:05 remaining in the game. St. Lawrence was able to run out the clock and collect their tenth conference win of the season.

Each team was able to find success on the power play, as Colgate finished 2-of-8 with the extra attacker while St. Lawrence was 3-for-5. Plenderleith fell to 7-8-2 on the season in a 25-save effort, and Weisz remained unbeaten in her career at St. Lawrence, improving to 4-0-0 on the season and 8-0-0 in her career.

The Saints will look to continue their three-game winning streak when they visit the Capital District for a pair of ECAC Hockey contests next weekend. The Scarlet and Brown will next take on the Rensselaer Engineers on Friday, January 25 at 7:00pm in Troy, NY.

TRIO OF SAINTS SCORE TWO AS SCARLET AND

BROWN KNOCK-OFF CORNELL, 6-2

Jan. 18: The No. 7/6 St. Lawrence University women’s hockey team had a trio of players score two goals as the Saints moved into second place in the ECAC Hockey standings with a 6-2 victory over Cornell University at Appleton Arena on Friday night. Juniors Marianna Locke and Carson Duggan each scored twice for the Scarlet and Brown, along with rookie Karell Emard, who netted her third and fourth goals of 2007-08.

St. Lawrence improved to 16-7-0 (9-2-0) on the season and won their 18th straight game against the Big Red dating back to January 21, 2001, and senior Sabrina Harbec used a three-assist night to become the first player in St. Lawrence University history to eclipse the 200-career point mark. Meanwhile, Cornell dropped to 8-8-1

(5-5-1) on the year after they were unable to crawl out of a 3-0 first period deficit.

Locke wasted very little time in tallying her two goals, collecting them both in the opening 6:19 of regulation. The Brasher Falls, NY native opening the game’s scoring at 3:46 when she tucked a rebound behind Cornell goalie Jenny Niesluchowski, and added her second goal of the period only 2:33 later when she re-directed a slap shot off the stick of senior defenseman Annie Guay, tipping it over the goaltender’s right shoulder. The goals were Locke’s 10th and 11th of the season and quickly gave St. Lawrence control of the game.

The home team continued to bombard Niesluchowski with shots, finishing the first period with an 18-5 advantage in shots on goal. St. Lawrence would build their lead to 3-0 at 15:42 on the power play, when Duggan got on the board with her 15th of the year. Guay again got the play started when her slap shot from the blue line hit the left post and bounced back in front of the net to Locke, who found Duggan for the backhanded shot in the slot. The goal would force Cornell head coach Doug Derraugh to pull Niesluchowski for Kayla Strong after making 14 saves in 15:42 minutes.

Though Cornell appeared out-matched in the first 20 minutes, the Big Red would respond in a big way early in the second period, tallying two goals in the first five minutes to pull to within one at 3-2. Caeleigh Beerworth got the visitors on the board only 43 seconds into the second period when she and teammate Brittany Forgues worked a pretty give-and-go to beat Saints’ goalie Meaghan Guckian to bring the score to 3-1.

Liz Zorn would then pull Cornell to within a goal at 3-2 with her 11th goal of the season at 4:59 . Forgues again started the scoring chance when her shot towards Guckian was deflected behind the goaltender by Zorn from just outside the goal mouth. The Big Red appeared to have tied the game only moments later, but Guckian stopped the puck on the goal line to keep her team ahead by one.

The momentum would shift once again, however, when Emard made her presence felt almost midway through the second period. After Emard nearly scored on a breakaway chance, she regained her composure and scored her first of the game at 8:51, deflecting another shot from Guay through Strong’s pads to make the score 4-2.

Sophomore Tara Akstull, who assisted on Emard’s first goal, won the ensuing face-off and the Saints turned up ice again, with Akstull firing a shot on goal first, followed by Emard. The Richelieu, Quebec native grabbed her own rebound and tucked it behind Strong at 9:02 , only 11 seconds after her first goal to put St. Lawrence ahead 5-2 after two periods.

The two teams continued to play hard throughout the third period, with the Scarlet and Brown holding a 10-4 edge in shots. The lone goal of the period came with only 1:43 remaining in the contest when Duggan tallied her second of the game when she snapped a one-timer behind Strong after a pretty centering pass from Harbec. The goal was the 74th of Duggan’s career, only three shy of the University goal scoring record.

“I thought we came out with a lot of energy in the first period and built a nice lead, but they’re a talented team and I give them a lot of credit for the way they responded early in the second period,” said Saints head coach Paul Flanagan. “Karell (Emard) really picked us up when the momentum had swung the other way.”

Guckian finished with 18 saves in the game and improved to 13-7-0 on the season, while Niesluchowski took the loss for Cornell, dropping to 4-6-0.

St. Lawrence scored the only power play goal of the night, finishing 1-for-5 while Cornell was 0-for-2 with the extra skater.

St. Lawrence will look to pick up their first weekend sweep since early December when they welcome Colgate University to Appleton Arena tomorrow, Saturday, January 19. The puck will drop on the Saints and Raiders at 4:00pm.