Adam Hogg scored a third-period goal to give St. Lawrence a 3-1 lead, and the Saints and Mike McKenna held off the Rensselaer Engineers for a 3-2 ECAC victory on the road.
“Very important win for us, given where we are in the standings,” said Saint coach Joe Marsh. “More importantly, these are the types of games that we’ve fallen short on for most of the season. I like to see the guys get rewarded for their efforts. That win was important for us psychologically as well as for the two points.”
“When we generated some opportunities, the big kid between the pipes was there for them,” said Engineer coach Dan Fridgen. “The opportunities that we got, we didn’t capitalize on and that was the difference in the game.”
Hogg scored to make it 3-1 as a big shot by Tony Maci got kicked out by Nathan Marsters. The rebound came right to the stick of, Hogg who slammed it home.
The Engineers came back within one goal when Nick Economakos took a rebound of a Scott Basiuk point shot and flipped it past McKenna.
The Engineers got another opportunity late in the game on the power play. Kevin Croxton missed an open net on a rebound and then the Engineers took a penalty to kill off the rest of the power-play time. The Engineers pulled Marsters, but couldn’t put the equalizer past McKenna.
“Late in the game, now you have to go and expect your PK guys to play offensively. It’s a huge mountain to climb,” said Fridgen about the third period. “Taking one late wasn’t good to the game plan, but when we pulled Nate we had some good opportunities and they did the little things, and that makes a huge difference in close games.”
The Saints never trailed; they took the early 1-0 lead on a Ziga Petac goal. After several open nets were missed they Engineers were caught out of position and as Marsters tried to get back into the net, Petac lifted it into the open net.
The Engineers came back to tie the game on the power play as Croxton took a rebound and put it between the pads of McKenna as he tried to come out to cut down the angle.
After Croxton scored the Saints came back to tie it on a three-on-two. Defenseman Ryan Glenn joined the play and took a back-pass that he one-timed past Marsters.
“They caught us on a couple of odd-man rushes, they capitalized on them and we couldn’t recover,” said Fridgen. “I thought we had a couple of real good chances in the end to get the equalizer. A bounce here or a bounce there — it just didn’t happen.”
Marsters made 28 saves, 19 of them in the first period, while McKenna stopped 31, including 15 in the second period and nine in the third.
“[McKenna’s] playing very well, and he’s playing with a lot of confidence right now,” said Marsh. “We’re playing real hard right now and I’m just happy with the effort and hopefully we can keep it going. To win this type of game gives him and the team a lot of confidence because these are the types of games you’re going to see the rest of the way.”
The Engineers (14-11-2, 8-6-1 ECAC) failed to jump Yale and Dartmouth in the standings and remain in fifth place. They host Clarkson in the annual Big Red Freakout! on Saturday evening.
The Saints (10-15-4, 6-8-1 ECAC) remain in ninth, one point behind Clarkson for the final home-ice playoff spot. They will travel to Union on Saturday.
