Saints get back to work for Raiders

CANTON — St. Lawrence University men's hockey team experienced a quick turnaround from an unforgettable three-game series against Clarkson this week.

The Saints advanced to the ECAC Hockey quarterfinals against Colgate this weekend after playing two overtime games and winning the decisive third game in the final 90 seconds.

"It was such an intense series," coach Joe Marsh said. "That alone prepares you for what you need to have. It's worth probably a month of practice."

Forced to play through Sunday, the Saints have a shortened week of practice before traveling to Colgate to start their next series.

"We're trying to recover from the weekend," St. Lawrence forward Mike McKenzie said. "Usually you get a Sunday off throughout the year. It tires you out a little more, but we're all ready to go."

The Raiders, however, earned a bye and haven't played since Feb. 27. Marsh said that doesn't necessarily matter as long as the Saints continue to practice well.

"You try and establish some sort of pattern or agenda to stick to," he said. "It's about getting hot and sustaining it."

Practice this week was short — little more than an hour each day — and the team worked on minor execution and fundamentals more than any changes in game plan.

"We want to emphasize the quality, not the quantity of the practice," Marsh said. "We had a good skate on Monday to kind of flush out the weekend a little bit. We're not going to affect any monumental changes in strategy."

Nor should St. Lawrence. What it's done against Colgate in the last two years seems to work. The Saints beat Colgate twice last season. This year, it was more of the same. St. Lawrence won 4-0 at Appleton Arena and finished Colgate in overtime, 3-2, at Starr Rink.

"We definitely have confidence going into Colgate's place," McKenzie said. "We've played pretty well at Starr the last couple years."

The last time St. Lawrence faced Colgate in the playoffs was in 2008. The Saints won Game 1 but lost the next two at Colgate to end the season. Marsh doesn't believe Colgate is that different a team from two years ago and sweeping the Raiders in consecutive regular seasons means nothing.

"You can't say 'Hey, we beat them twice,'" Marsh said. "It's hard to beat a team four times (in a season). I think our guys know it's a whole new ballgame."

That doesn't mean the confidence is lacking. Travis Vermeulen, a finalist for the ECAC Defensive Forward of the Year award, said winning will be a matter of consistency.

"We just have to maintain the things we did right (against Clarkson)," he said. "We understand that Colgate's a pretty good team and they finished the season on a pretty good note."

The Raiders overtook St. Lawrence in the final four games of the season to earn fourth place in the conference and a first-round bye. The Saints aren't worried about that now, having won three of their last four games heading into the Colgate series.

"We're confident but not overconfident," McKenzie said. "We enjoyed (the Clarkson win) for a day or so. It's in the back of our heads still, but we gotta move on from that and keep things rolling."

AWARDS SEASON

The ECAC award nominations continue to trickle in as the conference championship approaches.

So far, three awards have been announced and St. Lawrence has a man in the running in all of them.

Vermeulen was selected as a finalist for the Defensive Forward of the Year after setting career highs in goals (17), assists (23) and points (40) this season. Marsh has called him "the best defensive forward I've ever coached."

"I think that's a strong part of my game," Vermeulen said. "It's nice to get recognition for that."

Derek Keller is in the hunt for Best Defensive Defenseman, and coach Joe Marsh is up for Coach of the Year.