Saints bounce Raiders

HAMILTON — St. Lawrence University junior Matt Raley doesn't have a scholarship. He had only two career goals coming into SLU's ECAC Hockey quarterfinal series against Colgate.

But he rifled a shot inside the left post at 18 minutes, 53 seconds of the third period Saturday to give St. Lawrence a 4-3 come-from-behind win, eliminating Colgate from the conference tournament.

"We definitely wanted to get this done tonight," Raley said. "We're an extremely hard-working team, and the last thing we're going to do is give up."

St. Lawrence earned its third trip to the ECAC semifinals in Albany next weekend. The Saints won't know who they play until tonight as Union and Yale each host a Game 3 quarterfinal game.

"Something special happened out there," SLU coach Joe Marsh said. "(The players) are giving us everything they've got. There are six periods left to see if maybe we can get some hardware."

Raley's goal helped St. Lawrence finally win a three-game series in Colgate. The Saints had won Game 1 in three consecutive series at Colgate, but couldn't close the series, losing them all. Most recently, St. Lawrence dropped back-to-back games in 2008 after taking the first.

History appeared to be repeating when the Raiders took a 3-2 lead midway through the third period with a power-play goal by Francois Brisebois.

"Don't think that wasn't in the back of my mind," Marsh said. "Colgate's a very, very good team."

But the Raiders didn't count on the production from St. Lawrence's third and fourth lines. Before Raley's game-winner, Jake Drewiske tied the game at 3-3 with a top-shelf goal through traffic at 14:23 of the third.

"The first half (of the third period), we came out slow," Raley said. "But once we got that tying goal, we kept going hard."

The tying score was part of a three-goal third period by players who had five career goals or less while at St. Lawrence.

The first score of the period came via Nick Pitsikoulis at 1:21. It tied the game at 2-2.

"That's huge when you get four lines to contribute like that," Marsh said. "It was a great team effort."

St. Lawrence led only once. It lasted the 67 seconds between Raley's game-winner and the final horn.

The game started as many previous Game 2s between Colgate and St. Lawrence at Starr Rink. The Raiders dominated the first 30 minutes, picking up two power-play goals by Jeremy Price and peppering SLU goalie Kain Tisi with 23 shots.

"I am not disappointed with how we played," Colgate coach Don Vaughan said. "I couldn't be more proud of our guys."

St. Lawrence didn't give in or settle for a Game 3. Instead, senior Mike McKenzie broke the scoring drought with a goal at 10:20 of the second to pull SLU within 2-1. It was the eighth and final time he'd score in his career against the Raiders.

"I think it really helped that last weekend (against Clarkson), we were kind of in a similar situation," McKenzie said. "We knew what we had to do. We just kept working, working, working."

The Saints swept Colgate for the first time since the 2007 playoffs in Appleton Arena. It is the first time McKenzie and the nine other graduating seniors have made it to Albany without a first-round bye.

"When your team gets a chance to go to Albany - for my class, this is the third time in four year - it's pretty special," McKenzie said. "It's a tribute to all the guys in our class and all the players we played with along the way. It takes a whole team of guys. We showed that last weekend and we showed it again this weekend."

nNOTES:Tisi again kept Colgate at bay, stopping 33 shots, including 10 of the 11 he saw in the third period. All three goals allowed were on Colgate power plays.Alex Evinmade 25 saves for the Raiders. ... Top-seeded Yale forced a Game 3 against Brown, beating the Bears 6-3. Union returned from losing the longest game in NCAA history to Quinnipiac — a five-overtime battle — with a 3-1 win in regulation. Both decisive games will be played at 7 p.m.

CORRECTION

Due to an editor's error, a sentence in the story about St. Lawrence University's victory over Colgate in Game 1 of the ECAC Hockey quarterfinal series in Saturday's Times was incorrect. It should have read that SLU's Mike McKenzie has scored three game-winning goals this season against Colgate.