A big weekend culminated with a spectacular come-from-behind win for the Saints against Brown. SLU trailed by three early and fought back to win, 5-3, to complete the weekend sweep of Yale and Brown.
It earned four points in the conference standings and moves SLU into a tie for ninth place, but only four points out of fifth.
Here are the links to the two recaps:
It was not the conclusion to the ECAC Hockey road trip St. Lawrence wanted. The Saints left the Capitol District without scoring a goal.
No. 14 Union moved into first place in the conference after blowing out the Saints, 6-0, on Saturday. St. Lawrence also lost to RPI, 4-0, on Friday and is currently tied with Engineers for last place.
The Saints (8-15-3 overall, 4-9-1 ECAC) have not scored against Union in two meetings this season. The loss was the fourth straight for SLU, which hasn’t won since Jan. 6 against Minnesota State.
It was also the first time since the 2003-04 season that St. Lawrence suffered back-to-back shutouts. The Saints haven’t scored in 143 minutes, 48 seconds of hockey. Their last goal came via Chris Martin at 16:12 of the second period against Clarkson on Jan. 21.
“Going into Union when you’re struggling is not going to cure your ills,” SLU associate head coach Mike Hurlbut said. “They don’t give you a lot defensively, and while I thought we did some things a lot better than we did last night at RPI, we made some mistakes that they capitalized on.”
Troy Grosenick needed 26 saves to post his fourth shutout this season for Union (15-6-6, 9-3-3). He leads the nation in goals against average (1.58) and save percentage (.940).
Not that it would have mattered against St. Lawrence. Union struck for two goals in the first period.
Kelly Zajac started it at 10:30 off a swift pass from Wayne Simpson through the crease. Three minutes later, Jeremy Welsh netted his team-leading 18th goal off a St. Lawrence turnover.
The Saints were held to just four shots on goal, two of which came from outside the Union zone, in the first period. It marked the fifth straight game SLU did not record double-digit shots in the opening 20 minutes.
The Saints managed 11 shots on net in the second period, while union extended its lead to 3-0 when Mat Bodie scored with just four seconds left.
Massena native Matt Hatch put the game away at 3:39 of the third with Union’s fourth goal. He added one more score in the period. Max Novak also scored for Union.
St. Lawrence University head men's hockey coach Joe Marsh said in a phone interview Thursday that he will not return to coach the team this season. Further, he added that he will decide in the off-season if we he will return for a 27th season behind the bench.
"I'm going to sit down and see where this is going to go long-term," Marsh said. "I think we'll make that decision after the season. I'm kind of like an old Chevy — still runs, but needs a lot of maintenance in the garage."
Marsh decided in October to take an indefinite medical leave from coaching, handing the team over to associate head coach Mike Hurlbut and assistant Greg Carvel. Marsh continues to battle an arthritic condition as well as medical procedures for a constricted esophagus. He missed four games and several practices last season dealing with both.
"It's not like I'm in dire straits," he said. "There's people dealing with a lot more issues than I am. As far as me coming back this year, that's really not going to happen."
He travels to Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston every four-to-five weeks for various "maintenance" procedures. However, he said he doesn't expect to travel there that frequently over the next year, making a return to coaching possible.
"The situation is kind of where I thought it would be but didn't want it to be," Marsh said. "The decision to take the medical leave was the right one. While I may have to go through a procedure periodically, it's all maintenance. I don't want to make it sound like I'm in dire straits."
Marsh continues to speak with Hurlbut and Carvel several times per week and has attended a few home games and practices as a spectator.
"They're running things and doing a real good job," Marsh said. "It's like watching a kid grow up when you haven't seen them in a while. There are some really good things happening."
Since we had two beat writers covering this game, my story is not a traditional "game story." Instead, it is a sidebar meant to accompany the game story.
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POTSDAM — There’s honor in how St. Lawrence co-captain Jacob Drewiske handled his team’s 4-3 loss to Clarkson on Saturday at Cheel Arena.
It’s the way one would expect a captain to behave. He didn’t give excuses or place blame. He took responsibility for a play that led to a goal that led to a loss.
“My team deserves more,” he said. “I have to be better.”
It would not have been fair for anyone else to blame him.
It wasn’t Drewiske’s play alone that allowed Clarkson (11-10-5 overall, 5-4-3 ECAC Hockey) to outshoot the Saints 50-13. It wasn’t Drewiske alone who squandered goalie Matt Weninger’s sensational 46-save effort.
“It’s another lesson in the game is 60 minutes long and not eight minutes,” St. Lawrence associate head coach Mike Hurlbut said. “It’s guys not willing to pay the price to get the puck out of the zone or make a simple play to get the puck deep and get a forecheck going. It’s very frustrating for us.”
Despite all St. Lawrence’s pitfalls, including countless turnovers, it still held a 3-2 lead after two periods. Drewiske helped build that edge with a go-ahead score at 1 minute, 51 seconds of the second that put SLU up 2-1.
The third-period debacle was not entirely Drewiske’s fault.
Yet the senior co-captain fixated on one play: The Saints (8-13-3, 4-7-1), on a penalty kill, cleared the zone and Jeremy Wick came away with the loose puck. He flicked a pass behind him to Drewiske near the center dot instead of dumping it deep.
Drewiske sent a weak, errant pass toward the St. Lawrence bench, which Clarkson’s Ben Sexton picked off to start a two-on-one rush. Sexton fed Nick Tremblay and the game was tied. Drewiske slowly came to a stop trailing the play.
“I had a mental lapse and that changed the momentum of the game pretty quickly,” he said. “I’m very disappointed in myself tonight in the third period and that turnover.”
Clarkson, off another turnover, scored four minutes later to take the lead.
“They came hard all game, especially in the first and third,” Weninger said. “It’s disappointing for a lot of reasons. It’s a little bit deflating.”
The Saints still had over nine minutes to find the equalizer, including a full minute with an extra attacker.
SLU failed to put a quality shot on goal during that time. That included a moment when St. Lawrence’s top line of Kyle Flanagan, Greg Carey and Patrick Doherty controlled a loose puck in the slot but couldn’t get a shot off.
Drewiske did no finger-pointing. He did as a captain should when his team is struggling: Maintained cohesion for later success, not harm the chemistry and be doomed to fail. He’s telling his teammates — his second family — that he will never turn on them.
There’s a lot of honor in that.
“We’re resilient and I believe in the guys in the locker room and our coaches believe in us,” Drewiske said. “We will rebound and we’re going to be a team nobody wants to play at the end.”
I will be live-blogging and chatting during the Clarkson-SLU game tonight. The live blog will start around 6 p.m. The game is set for 7 p.m. Just type your questions or comments into the box below and I will do my best to answer them.
