Senior wing T.J. Trevelyan scored two goals and set up the game-winner as St. Lawrence battled from behind for a 5-4 win over arch-rival Clarkson and a split of the back-to-back ECAC Hockey League series between two of Division I hockey’s biggest rivals.
The Saints, who lost at Clarkson on Friday night, 3-2, fell behind, 3-1, but scored four-straight goals to delight a standing-room-only crowd of 3500 at Appleton Arena on Saturday. SLU snapped a three-game losing streak and improves to 15-10-1 overall and 9-5-0 in the ECACHL. Clarkson is now 13-11-2 overall and 6-7-1 in league play.
The Saints have now taken at least one regular-season game a season against Clarkson in each of the last seven years. It was the fifth-straight win over Clarkson at Appleton Arena and the fourth one-goal
decision in those five games.
“Those were two outstanding hockey games,” said Saint coach Joe Marsh. “I think the North Country got its money’s worth the last two nights.
“It is obviously a huge win for us, both in terms of the standings and from a psychological standpoint for the team. We scored some hard-working goals and showed a lot of mental resiliency when we were able to come back from two down after losing over there last night.”
Trevelyan electrified the Saint crowd 2:40 into the game with a shorthanded goal to give the Saints an early lead, but the Knights quieted things down quickly, getting a power-play goal just 30 seconds later from freshman Chris D’Alvise.
D’Alvise’s fifth of the year was the first of three consecutive goals for Clarkson. Freshman Shawn Weller was awarded his 12th of the season at 5:30. Saint goalie Justin Pesony stopped Shea Guthrie’s initial shot, but Weller ran into Pesony and the puck ended up in the net for a 2-1 Clarkson lead. Sophomore Nick Dodge then scored his 13th of the season as he walked out from behind the net and tucked the puck into the far corner at 17:20 for a 3-1 lead.
The Saints got back into it with 1:47 left in the first period when freshman Brock McBride picked up the rebound of a shot by Kyle Rank and put it back past Clarkson goalie Kyle McNulty for his fourth of the season to make it a 3-2 game after the first 20 minutes.
St. Lawrence tied the game midway through the second period as Trevelyan scored his second of the night and 12th of the season, tipping a shot by Max Taylor past McNulty for the only goal of the period.
Clarkson had a lengthy five-on-three power play, but managed only one shot on goal with the two-man advantage. Pesony’s diving save on Guthrie with five minutes to play kept it a 3-3 game through two periods.
Adam Hogg gave the Saints the lead at 7:52 when he jammed his third of the year past McNulty at 7:52 of the third and John Zeiler scored his 10th of the year, diving to deflect Trevelyan’s pass past McNulty at 10:40 of the third.
The Golden Knights made it interesting when they pulled McNulty for an extra attacker with 2:53 left to play in the third. The Saints hit the post twice on the empty net and the Knights cashed in when David Cayer scored his 10th with 35 seconds to go. Pesony came up with a huge save on Dodge with five seconds to go to keep the Saints on top and preserve the win.
McNulty finished with 29 saves for the Golden Knights while Pesony had 28 for SLU.
“Justin made some tremendous saves for us again tonight,” said Marsh. “I thought he played very well both nights and we were able to give him some defensive support by clearing people out in front, particularly in the third period.”
