A superb defensive effort and a counterattacking offense led No. 5 St. Lawrence past No. 1 Dartmouth, 3-0, Friday at Thompson Arena.
The Big Green (17-3-2, 9-1-1 ECAC) has lost consecutive games for the first time since January 10-11, 2003. St. Lawrence (19-5-1, 10-1-0) jumped ahead of Dartmouth for first place in the ECAC by one point.
Dartmouth came out firing with four shots in the first four minutes of the game, but Saints goalie Rachel Barrie turned aside the Big Green. Dartmouth also enjoyed a 5-on-3 advantage midway through the first period but mustered just one shot in over three minutes of power-play time.
The Saints broke the tie at 11:31 of the first period. St. Lawrence’s Kate Michael cleared the puck from the defensive zone with a pass to Christin Powers. Powers skated down the right side of the ice and took a wrist shot on Dartmouth freshman goalie Christine Capuano.
Capuano seemed to stop the puck, but it squirted through her and trickled into the net for a 1-0 St. Lawrence lead.
St. Lawrence’s second goal came shorthanded at 14:49 of the first. Rebecca Russell found a streaking Gina Kingsbury at center ice, and Kingsbury beat the goalie with a backhander.
Dartmouth sophomore Cherie Piper had the Big Green’s best scoring chance one minute into the second period. Piper came in alone on Barrie, but could not get the shot off after a move to elude the goalie. Just seconds later, St. Lawrence moved back up ice and Elisabeth Pahler notched the final goal of the night at 1:19 of the period.
St. Lawrence played a defensive style the rest of the game, clearing the puck and holding Dartmouth mostly to shots from the point. The Big Green held a 27-23 edge in shots on goal for the game. Dartmouth was 0-6 while St. Lawrence went 0-4 on the power play.
Capuano played the first two periods and made 11 saves for Dartmouth, while sophomore Kate Lane had nine saves in the third period. Barrie stopped all 27 shots for her fifth shutout of the season.
The same two teams face off Saturday at 4 p.m. at Thompson Arena.
