Weekend Review

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What to make of the weekend?

St. Lawrence defeated Princeton, 5-2, but was spanked by Quinnipiac 5-2.

Against Princeton, everything was working well for the Saints. Alex Petizian was stopping every shot, and the Saints even scored a short-handed goal.

That evaporated against the Bobcats. Robby Moss started in net and took a beating, especially in the second period.

Moss surrendered four goals in the frame, including two power plays. In fact, the penalty kill was the worst it’s been all year. The Saints gave up three power-play scores, killing just three.

Meanwhile, Quinnipiac couldn’t stay out of the box. St. Lawrence’s special teams are definitely a concern at this stage.

The Saints scored on just one of 20 power plays this weekend. Its opponents went 4-of-12. St. Lawrence must figure out a way to score more consistently on the power play. This season, St. Lawrence is converting barely 17 percent of power plays and killing penalties at less than 80 percent.

The Saints didn’t score well on the power play last year either, finishing the season at 17.6 percent. It did, however, kill penalties at near 90 percent. That difference could be in the youth and inexperience of the defense.

The Saints are struggling to control the puck in their own zone, and opposing teams will start to get more aggressive against it soon.

The Saints are sixth or seventh in the conference in every special teams category.

My guess is coach Joe Marsh will continue to harp on puck control and taking advantage of power plays. The Saints may not have beaten Quinnipiac had it been better there, but they wouldn’t have very found themselves down 4-0 at any point.

Now, the good news. St. Lawrence split in its first ECAC weekend. The Saints were the only ECAC road team to win a game at all this weekend, so that’s a positive. Union tied Yale and Brown in a bit of a surprising start to its season.

Clarkson was swept.

I think it’s a positive to come out of the weekend 1-1, especially against Princeton (the nations 19th ranked team) and Quinnipiac, which is now No. 20 after a 6-1 start.

Ahead for St. Lawrence is Union and RPI at home.

NOTES:

Kyle Flanagan leads the conference is points by a rookie, and is third overall in the ECAC.

Flanagan is also tied for the conference lead in game-winning goals with two.

Peter Child leads the ECAC in scoring by a defenseman. He has seven points. Derek Keller is second with six.