Saints denied trip to finals

ALBANY — Whatever nerves No. 4 Union College felt coming into its first ECAC Hockey semifinal at the Times Union Center, it didn't show.

The Dutchmen ended No. 5 St. Lawrence's hopes for an NCAA Tournament berth with a 3-1 win in front of 5,703 fans on Friday.

"We talked this week that we weren't coming here to just be here for the first time," Union's Jason Walters said. "I thought we battled tonight and we got a big win against a good St. Lawrence team."

The Saints will play in the consolation game against No. 11 Brown today at 4. Union advanced the championship game for the first time in school history and faces No. 2 Cornell at 7 p.m.

Dutchmen goalie Keith Kinkaid displayed why he's a finalist for both ECAC Hockey Goalie of the Year and Rookie of the Year against the Saints.

The freshman stopped 29 of St. Lawrence's 30 shots, including all 13 he faced in the third period.

"Great players make great coaches," Union's ECAC Coach of the Year Nate Leaman said. "Our goaltender made us look pretty good tonight."

Kinkaid allowed only one goal, coming with 25 seconds left in the second period, which tied the game at 1-1. St. Lawrence's Derek Keller controlled the puck near the right circle, made a move to get by a defenseman and buried a shot from the slot over Kinkaid's left shoulder.

"We weren't getting many quality chances," SLU forward Travis Vermeulen said. "When we were getting those, (Kinkaid) was up to the test."

Kinkaid stoned the Saints during two power plays in the third period, the first with the game tied.

"We had traffic (in front)," St. Lawrence coach Joe Marsh said of the power plays. "We had bids, we just didn't score. They've won a lot of games that way."

Kinkaid received the go-ahead goal he needed for the win at 9 minutes, 26 seconds of the third. Jason Walters fired a sharp-angle shot toward SLU's goal. Adam Presizniuk got enough of his stick on it to trickle it through Kain Tisi's legs for a 2-1 edge.

The goal allowed Kinkaid to get his third win of the season against the Saints. The Dutchmen made sure of the win with an empty-net goal with 4.9 seconds left in the third period.

"Going into tonight, Keith had been fortunate enough to beat SLU twice," Leaman said. "His strengths matchup well against St. Lawrence. He didn't give up any rebounds. I thought he did a good job."

Kinkaid set the school's freshman goalie record with his 12th win, improving to 12-7-3 overall. Tisi picked up the loss for the Saints and dropped to 11-9-3. He had won three consecutive games to get St. Lawrence to the conference semifinals.

"The toughest part for us is that we'd like to still be playing," Marsh said. "I'm very, very proud of our team. A lot of people didn't expect us to do this."

St. Lawrence was picked to finish 10th in the preseason coaches' poll. The Saints ended the regular season in fifth place and earned its third trip to the ECAC semifinals in four years by defeating Clarkson in three games and sweeping Colgate last weekend.

"You walk a very fine line between feeling like we feel now and feeling like we did last weekend," Marsh said. "We'd like to have some of those chances back."

Said Vermeulen: "I think everyone in the locker room laid everything on the ice. We realize that tomorrow is going to be the last time we play together as a team."

St. Lawrence split its two games against No. 11 Brown. The Bears made it to the semifinals after upset wins over top-seeded Yale and No. 6 RPI. They lost to No. 2 Cornell, 3-0.