St. Lawrence scored two goals in 53 seconds late in the third period to turn a 3-1 deficit into a 3-3 tie, and that is how the Saints’ ECAC Hockey League game with Rensselaer ended in front of a sold out Houston Field House crowd of 5,152 in the 30th Big Red Freakout!.
St. Lawrence, the 19th-ranked team in the nation, is now 12-9-2 overall and 8-2-1 in the league. Rensselaer is 6-11-7 and 2-6-4. The Engineers extend their unbeaten in the Big Red Freakout! to 17 games (12-0-5).
St. Lawrence opened the game’s scoring when junior Mark Wallman deflected a Jordan Hack point shot under Rensselaer netminder Mathias Lange and into the back of the net at 7:34 of the first period. Hack collected the puck on the right point on a hard-around by an RPI defenseman and sent it toward the front of the net, where Wallman was stationed. Rensselaer tied the game when sophomore Andrei Uryadov jammed a loose puck — the Engineers’ third attempt following two saves by Alex Petizian — across the goal line. Seth Klerer and Jake Morissette, both of whom had shots stopped in the sequence, earned the assists on the play.
RPI took a 2-1 lead at 14:28 of the second period when junior Andrew Lord deflected a Ryan Swanson point shot past Petizian. Peter Merth also assisted on the goal, Lord’s second of the season.
The Engineers made it 3-1 early in the third period when freshman Paul Kerins scored on a wristshot from the slot. Lord earned the primary assist and Dan Peace the secondary.
Senior Max Taylor pulled the visitors to within one goal with a power play marker at 14:39 and senior captain Kyle Rank tied the score just 53 seconds later. Taylor’s goal came on a shot from the blueline while Rank’s was scored from the right faceoff circle.
Lange finished with 25 saves for RPI, while Petizian stopped 24 shots for SLU, including three in overtime.
