St. Lawrence has little left in consolation

ALBANY — St. Lawrence University didn't come to the ECAC Hockey championship weekend to finish in third or fourth place.

The Saints wanted to win it all. But after losing to Union in the semifinals, it's no wonder they looked deflated and defeated against Brown in the consolation game on Saturday. The Bears took advantage, becoming the first No. 11 seed to finish third, beating No. 5 St. Lawrence, 3-0.

"You can't go in and create a championship-type atmosphere when they know it isn't," St. Lawrence coach Joe Marsh said. "You can't fake them out. You have to be honest about it. We wanted to keep it loose and we had some chances. Brown's a good team and they don't give you a heck of a lot."

Neither team gained an edge through the opening 20 minutes and both goalies appeared to be on their games. St. Lawrence's senior goalie Alex Petizian made his first start since losing Game 2 of the ECAC opening series to Clarkson in Appleton Arena. Brown had senior Dan Rosen, who played in six games this season as he struggled to recover from hip surgery.

Rosen made 21 saves for the shutout and his first win of the year.

"To have the team play as hard as they did and as well as they did means a lot," Rosen said. "We all would rather be playing in the championship if we had won (Friday). To have everyone come together for today and get a win is really special for sure."

Brown (13-20-4 overall) finished an unprecedented ECAC Tournament run by beating No. 6 Rensselaer, No. 1 Yale and No. 5 St. Lawrence (19-15-7). The Bears only lost to eventual-ECAC Tournament champion No. 2 Cornell.

Against the Saints, the Bears broke the scoreless deadlock at 14 minutes, 34 seconds of the second period. Aaron Volpatti skated by the defense on a breakaway and beat Petizian over his left shoulder for his 17th goal of the year.

"We wanted to really end the season on a high note and end it with a win," Volpatti said. "Not too many teams get to end a season with a win."

St. Lawrence couldn't respond as nothing got by Rosen, who made seven saves in the second period and five in the third.

"We came out pretty strong in the first period, but tapered off as the game went on," SLU forward Travis Vermeulen said. "We knew this was going to be our last game together and it was the end of our season."

Brown's Jesse Fratkin gave the Bears a 2-0 lead at 4:05 of the third period, while Rosen continued to stymie the Saints.

Marsh opted to pull Petizian with a full eight minutes left in the game in an attempt to get back into the game. Instead, Harry Zolnierczyk scored an empty-netter at 16:52 for a three-goal advantage.

"The third-place game is always a very hard game to play," Brown coach Brendan Whittet said. "It's tough to get motivated for, but I thought our guys played very good hockey tonight."

St. Lawrence ended its season one win shy of the school's 14th 20-win season. The Saints graduate 10 seniors, including its top two point-scorers from this year in Vermeulen (41 points) and Mike McKenzie (114 career points, 35 this season).

"I'm just happy that for four years, I played as hard as I could and helped the team win," McKenzie said. "I've had three winning season and three trips to Albany. It's a special moment to finish up our careers here."

Said Marsh: "There are some guys in there I never want to think about playing without. I'm very pleased with this group."

nNOTES:Petizian allowed two goals against Brown and finished his career with a 2.53 goals against average. He broke the school's career GAA record, which was held byBill Sloan(1952-56) at 2.55.

CORNELL 3, UNION 0

Ben Scrivens made 32 saves to lead Cornell to a victory over Union in the ECAC hockey championship game in Albany.

Cornell (21-8-4) won its 12th ECAC title and secured an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.

Joe Devin, Sean Whitney and Patrick Kennedy scored for Cornell, which ran its unbeaten streak to six games.

Keith Kinkaid, who set a Union (21-12-6) freshman goalie record with his 12th win of the season in the semifinals, finished with 31 saves.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.