Sophomore forward Brock McBride scored two goals and freshman goaltender Alex Petizian carried a shutout into the final six minutes as St. Lawrence University maintained its hold on first place in the ECAC Hockey League with a 4-1 win over Yale at Appleton Arena Friday night.
The No. 16 Saints swept their fourth season series with an opponent this year as they improved to 16-11-2 overall and 12-4-1 in the ECACHL. Yale drops to 9-12-3 overall and 6-10-1 in league play.
The Saints took a 2-0 lead into the third period and McBride padded it with two goals at opposite ends of the spectrum. His first of the game and seventh of the year was a wrist shot which glanced off the inside of Yale goalie Matt Modelski’s leg pad and just trickled over the goal line at 3:49.
His second of the period, at 5:25 on a Saint power play was a shot into the empty net as a pretty passing play set him up all alone in front. Kevin DeVergilio and Max Taylor swapped passes before DeVergilio threaded a fast pass to McBride, who had Modelski caught at the other side of the net.
Petizian didn’t see a lot of shots through the first two periods, but kept Yale at bay until Greg Beller scored his second of the year with 6:25 to go as the Saints improved to 7-1-0 in league play at home.
“That was a solid effort across the board,” said Saint coach Joe Marsh. “I thought our defense did a great job of blocking shots and denying them in front of Petizian and when they did get through, Alex made some key saves at important times. We scored a couple of very pretty goals and were able to keep a team which we felt was a dangerous team in check.”
St. Lawrence scored the only goal of the first period as senior captain Kyle Rank finished off a pretty passing play with his 11th goal of the season at 14:54. Defenseman Zach Miskovic sent freshman forward Sean Flanagan into the Yale zone with a lead pass and Flanagan put a perfect cross-crease pass on the stick of Rank who buried the puck in a
wide open net.
Modelski kept it a 1-0 game with 3:15 to go in the period when he made a one-on-one shorthanded breakaway save on Saint rookie Alex Curran. The Saints outshot Yale 9-4 in the first period, allowing only two Yale shots on three Eli power play opportunities.
The Saints nearly made it a two-goal game with 14:13 to play in the second when Rank rang a shot off the inside of the post, but it stayed out of the net. They did take their 2-0 lead just 3:10 later with the teams skating four-on-four.
Matt Generous chipped the puck out of the Yale end and a streaking DeVergilio took it in stride and headed into the Yale zone. Freshman center Jeremiah Cunningham raced up the opposite wing and redirected DeVergilio’s goal mouth pass past Modelski for his fifth of the year at 8:57.
Yale was held to six shots on goal through the first 32 minutes of the game, but had some good scoring bids turned aside by Petizian in the last five minutes of the second period. Petizian finished with 20 saves for the night while Modelski had 23 for the Elis.
On Saturday evening, Yale visits Clarkson will St. Lawrence hosts Brown.
