Saints skate to upset win

CANTON — The St. Lawrence University women's hockey team showed Tuesday night that it is not quite ready to give up its traditional spot as the area's top program.

The Saints shocked third-ranked Clarkson with a three-goal first period and went on to record a 4-2 upset of the Golden Knights in an ECAC Hockey game at Appleton Arena.

Clarkson (19-6-3 overall, 14-1-1 conference) is higher-ranked than the Saints for the first time in the six-year history of the rivalry.

SLU's players acknowledged after the game that this has been Clarkson's year, but hope to use Tuesday's game to gain some momentum heading into the postseason at the end of the month.

"(Coach Chris Wells) is always reading articles about teams going up to play No. 3 Clarkson and they always forget about us," said SLU defenseman Courtney Sawchuk. "It proves how good we can be. Knocking the No. 3 team off felt pretty good. I think we want to be (the best), but it's also taking the pressure off us. I think people are going to be surprised about how well we can do."

"Clarkson is third in the country and they are third for a reason," said SLU forward Alley Bero. "Just beating them tonight, it's a boost I guess."

The Saints (12-9-7, 8-5-3) looked like the program that has been to four Frozen Fours in the last six years during the first period on Tuesday.

Sawchuk set the tone by ringing a shot off the goal post just 19 seconds into the game.

"That got everybody pumped up," Sawchuk said. "It was so close, inches. We won the game in the first 10 minutes. We came out flying."

Clarkson was missing goalie Lauren Dahm to illness. Dahm had played every minute this season and had a .939 save percentage and 1.47 goals-against average.

But Golden Knights co-coach Matt Desrosiers didn't blame the rough first-period on the lack of Dahm. Freshman Kelsey Neumann got her first career start and finished with 22 saves on 26 shots.

"I don't think (missing Dahm) was a really big deal," Desrosiers said. "I think the biggest thing was we just came out flat in the first period. Then all of a sudden we turned it on. I thought we played well in the second and third."

It was an uncharacteristic first period for the Golden Knights, who had outscored opponents 24-5 in the opening 20 minutes prior to Tuesday's game and found themselves trailing after the opening period for just the second time all season.

"It was good for us to get off to a good start," Wells said. "We've had a lot of pressure the last couple weekends and the puck hasn't crossed the line. Tonight we got a couple quick bounces. We had (Sawchuk) hit off the pipe. It was a great start and really set the tone."

SLU's first goal came on a power-play shot from Brooke Fernandez at 7 minutes, 23 seconds of the first period. Bero added another goal at 13:35 and Jamie Goldsmith made it 3-0 with a tip-in shot at 14:48.

"Getting the first two was big," Bero said. "I think the second goal, after we got out of that one-goal lead, we had more of a cushion, but we still had to play hard."

Clarkson scored on a power-play goal from Melissa Waldie at 19:18 of the third period and neither team scored again until Kayla Sullivan put a shot in for the Saints at 5:41 of the third.

Juana Baribeau ended the scoring with a breakaway goal for the Golden Knights at 18:57 of the third period.

nNOTES:Despite Tuesday's loss Clarkson is still in a comfortable spot in the ECAC Hockey standings, with a four-point lead over second-place Cornell with six games remaining. ... Clarkson forwardCaitlin Oleksawas the backup goalie Tuesday. She had some experience in youth leagues at the position but did not make it into the game.