Saints rally to salvage point

CANTON — Sacred Heart wouldn't go away, and St. Lawrence University couldn't stay out of the penalty box. It resulted in the Saints giving away their two-goal lead in the third period, falling behind, and coming back to salvage a 3-3 nonconference tie in overtime Saturday at Appleton Arena.

"It's obviously not the third period we were looking for," SLU's Mike McKenzie said. "We had a lead and blew it in the third period."

St. Lawrence led 2-0 heading into the final session. Goalie Alex Petizian was having his best game of the season. He stopped all 22 shots he faced through the first two periods.

But the third saw St. Lawrence spend 10 minutes in the penalty box, giving Sacred Heart five power plays. The Pioneers didn't convert on any, but St. Lawrence coach Joe Marsh said damage was still done.

"It certainly takes us out of our chance to play to our strengths," he said. "We try to develop some depth and all of a sudden you've got to shorten the bench, and you've got guys like McKenzie — who's one of the best goal-scorers in the country and a very good offensive player — and he doesn't kill penalties. He's sitting there freezing, and it takes him out of any kind of rhythm."

Said McKenzie, "The flow of the game sometimes gets ruined. It's part of the game, but you just have to stay focused."

Paul Ferraro started the comeback with a goal at 5 minutes, 7 seconds of the third period. The shot was deflected past Petizian.

"I know the first one I had lined up and it went off Jeff (Caister)," Petizian said. "There's not much you can do on those."

The Pioneers continued to put traffic in front of Petizian and scored only a minute later when Dave Jarman tied it at 2-2. That one, Sacred Heart deflected in.

The same happened on Erik Boisvert's go-ahead goal at 8:15 of the third.

"The second and third were deflections," Petizian said. "Anytime we get penalties, it switches the momentum a little bit. For me, I've just got to stay in it and battle through it."

Petizian did make 34 saves with 11 in the third period. St. Lawrence needed another player to come up with a late-game goal to send it to overtime.

Jeremiah Cunningham answered.

"Kyle (Flanagan) made a great play and a great pass," McKenzie said. "Jerry drove the net real hard. We were driving the net real hard all night, especially Jer, and he got rewarded. It's huge."

The score came at 18:27 and was assisted by Flanagan and Pete Child.

"Obviously it's exciting to see a tying goal," Marsh said. "But the fact that we have guys that can make that big play late is a good thing for us."

Petizian stopped a few more shots before going to overtime.

The game didn't start anywhere close to how it finished. It looked much like Friday night's game, a St. Lawrence 6-3 win. The Saints opened with two goals in the first period.

On the first, McKenzie back-handed a pass to Kyle Flanagan at the 6:25 mark. Cunningham also assisted on the score.

Then, McKenzie and Mark Armstrong assisted Mac Stratford's power-play goal at 12:59 of the first.

Trouble mounted for Sacred Heart from there. Leading scorer Nick Johnson took a 5-minute spearing penalty and a 10-minute game misconduct and exited the game, leaving the offense desperate for a scorer.

"He's a big part of our power play," Sacred Heart coach CJ Marottolo said. "It definitely hurt us, but it gave someone else an opportunity to step up and that's what our guys did tonight."

Marottolo said the third-period onslaught was actually sparked by killing the penalty Johnson left them.

"It was a big turning point in the game from our perspective," he said. "Our guys got a lot of energy from that."

The resulting tie left the Pioneers grateful for avoiding the sweep.

"St. Lawrence is a great team," Marottolo said. "It's hard to come up here and get a point. We fought hard for that one point and we're happy with it."

It was a learning experience for the Saints.

"That can be a very valuable tie for us, knowing that we can come back late, but at the same time knowing that we have to manage our game that much better," Marsh said. "They can take away some good lessons from this. That's sometimes how the message comes home."

For more coverage of St. Lawrence men's hockey, visit the "Casstle of the Saints" blog online at http://www.watertowndailytimes.com/section/blogs05