St. Lawrence brutalizes Clarkson

CANTON — About the only thing that went wrong for St. Lawrence University on Saturday night was a broken piece of glass behind one of the goals in Appleton Arena, which delayed the start of the second period 13 minutes.

Clarkson, on the other hand, could do little right.

The Saints scored three goals in the first 7:25 and cruised to a 5-1 win over the rival Golden Knights in a nonconference game before a crowd of 2,800.

"We weren't ready to play for pretty much the entire game," said Clarkson coach George Roll. "They won all the one-on-one battles."

Senior Casey Parenteau sparked the Saints (9-9-1) with two goals in the first 5:42 of the contest. His first was a wrist shot from the circle that beat Clarkson goalie Paul Karpowich on the stick side at 2:57. His second goal came off a rebound of a shot from linemate Kevin DeVergilio.

"We think it's really important to get off to a good start," said Parenteau. "We want to jump on teams right away. I was pretty psyched. I was kind of surprised at the (first) goal."

Clarkson (3-12-4) was about to be called for its first penalty when SLU scored its third goal of the opening period on a shot from Jeff Caister. The Saints pulled goalie Kain Tisi while waiting for Clarkson to touch up the puck, but Caister's shot hit the back of the net instead.

"It's always been that way, they are a momentum team," Roll said of the Saints. "You can tell they had it pretty good."

As bad as the first period was for the Golden Knights, it was merely a prelude for a frustrating second period. Instead of whittling away at SLU's lead, Clarkson was outshot 22-2 in the second period and gave up another goal, this time during a power play off a slap shot from Shawn Fensel at 3:48.

"It's pretty embarrassing to show an effort like that," said Clarkson co-captain Phil Paquet.

Clarkson's comeback attempt was thwarted by repeated visits to the penalty box in the second period, as SLU had five power-play attempts.

"It wasn't about X's and O's tonight," Roll said. "We just got outmuscled, physically, in all facets of the game."

Clarkson, which suffered a 2-0 loss at Ohio State in its previous game, snapped a five-period scoreless drought with a power-play goal from Matt Beca at 3:41 of the third period.

But the Saints ended the scoring with a goal from Jared Keller at 7:14.

"We caught some breaks in the first period but I thought Clarkson hung tough in the third," said SLU coach Joe Marsh.

The teams will meet again today at 4 p.m. in another nonconference game, this time at Cheel Arena. It will be nationally televised by ESPNU.

National exposure notwithstanding, Clarkson will be looking to avenge one of its worst defeats of the season.

"I hope so," Roll said. "I'm embarrassed for the program right now. Everybody is responsible for it. We have to find a way to bounce back. I didn't see this coming. We were coming off a good showing in Ohio."

Said Paquet, "It will be a complete turnaround from us, that's for sure."

The Saints, while enjoying Saturday's victory, are also aware that they will face a motivated Clarkson team this afternoon.

"I think the teams are similar in a lot of ways," Marsh said. "I know we've been through a lot of the same things."

Said SLU defenseman Zach Miskovich, "It's a new day. We have to let this one go. It's in the bank, as coach says."

ELMIRA 5, SUNY POTSDAM 3

Elmira scored five goals in the third period to come back from a 3-0 deficit in the third period and pick up a nonconference win over the Bears (3-9-3) in Potsdam.

Karl Linden led the Pioneers (9-4) with one goal and two assists. Rick Schrank, Rick Acorn, Brendan Sanders and Albert Mitchell also scored goals for Elmira. Casey Tuttle, the younger brother of Clarkson senior Dan Tuttle, was the winning goalie with 25 saves.

Sy Nutketvitch, Scott Voison and Fraser Smith scored for the Bears.

WOMEN

BOSTON COLLEGE 4, ST. LAWRENCE 1

Allie Thunstrom scored two goals to lead the Eagles (13-5-3) past SLU in a nonconference game at Appleton Arena. Meghan Fardelmann and Stephanie Olchowski also scored for Boston College. Karell Emard scored for the Saints (12-5-3).

CLARKSON 4, MAINE 1

Marie-Jo Gaudet, Genevieve Lavoie, Gabrielle Kosziwka and Danielle Boudreau scored goals to lead the Golden Knights (10-6-4) past Maine in a nonconference game at Cheel Arena in Potsdam. Amy Stech scored for the Black Bears (4-15-2).