It was a closely contested game at Appleton Arena that saw the home team skate away with their second victory of the year, as St. Lawrence held on to win, 3-2, over the University of Vermont, improving to 2-5-1 on the year. The Catamounts fell to 0-6 for the young season.
It was Vermont that opened the scoring, just past the 14-minute mark of the first period. Taylor Willard’s shot beat Sonja Shelly high glove side to give the Catamounts the lead, which was the first time they had a lead all year. The Catamounts carried that lead into the first intermission.
However, according to coach Jim Plumer, UVM has struggled in the second period, and tonight was no exception. A quick three goals for St. Lawrence saw UVM’s lead evaporate, leaving them in a two-goal hole.
First, Lydia Grauer’s backhand from the slot beat Madison Litchfield between the blocker and the leg pad to even the game just under five minutes into the middle frame. Then, senior defenseman Megan Armstrong gave SLU the one-goal edge with a goal from the slot.
“Our forwards did a great job moving the puck to the point and I decided to pinch in; Kennedy Marchment made a great play to put the puck on my stick and I put it on net,” said Armstrong. “I sort of whiffed, but it found a way past the goalie.”
Sydney Bell’s slap shot from the left circle came just 19 seconds later and would hold up as the game-winner.
Trailing 3-1 heading into the third, UVM did not go down without a fight. The Catamounts had several grade A scoring chances and found a way to score a gritty goal. SLU netminder Sonja Shelly made the initial save, but in the ensuing scrum, both the puck and Shelly were pushed over the goal line. The play was reviewed for close to four minutes and ultimately upheld, trimming the Saints lead to just one with almost 15 minutes to play in the third period. The goal was credited to Dayna Colang.
“The longer it went the more we thought it was going to go the other way,” said Plumer of the goal, which was a good goal on the ice. “Our kids said that it definitely went in before the goalie.”
The Catamounts were not lacking in scoring chances for the rest of the game, but ultimately, St. Lawrence held on for the sweep of UVM, but it was not all negative for Plumer’s squad.
“We scored two goals, that’s twice as many as we’ve scored this year,” said Plumer with a wry smile. “The moral victories are getting a little hollow when you’re at 0-6, but I saw more little things done well tonight than in games past.”
Meanwhile, for St. Lawrence, coach Chris Wells has started to see what he wants out of his team.
“I think we are getting better every game; take scoreboard and results out of it, we have a lot of resiliency in the room,” said Wells. “I juggled some lines this weekend and we saw some good play.”
Armstrong acknowledged that the mood surrounding the team has drastically improved after the weekend.
“It’s a lot better; it took us a while to get there, but now that we have some wins under our belt, it’s really positive.”
St. Lawrence hosts Syracuse next weekend, while UVM will play Providence and Boston University in a pair of Hockey East contests.
