Blair Clarance scored his second game-winning goal in as many nights and goaltender Sean Coakley continued his mastery of Colgate with a 31-save night as St. Lawrence turned back the Red Raiders, 3-1.
The Saints improved to 16-10-4 (13-4-3 ECAC) with the victory. St. Lawrence maintains a one-point point lead on Clarkson for first place in the ECAC and can finish no worse than second in the final standings. Colgate is now 9-19-4 overall and 7-12-1 in the ECAC.
“It was a battle, but it was another one that we were able to win,” said Saint coach Joe Marsh. “Colgate put a lot of pressure on at various times in the game, but Sean made some great saves in key situations, and we were able to respond offensively to take the momentum back.
“It was a good way to finish out the home part of the regular season and we are in real good shape as far as the standings are concerned.”
The Saints scored the only goal of the first period at the 9:01 mark when Alan Fyfe took a pass from pass from Mike Gellard and tucked it into a wide open net just two seconds after a Saint power play had expired.
Goalie Sean Coakley kept it a 1-0 lead when he made a big glove save on Colgate forward Kevin Johns in a one-on-one situation with 7:18 to play in the period.
Colgate finally snapped Coakley’s string of shutout minutes against the Raiders at 89:21 when Chad MacDonald got behind the Saint defense, took a long lead pass from Cory Murphy and soloed on Coakley, tucking the puck under his pad at 9:21 of the second period to tie it at 1-1.
The Saints retook the lead when Ray DiLauro sent Blair Clarance and Robin Carruthers away on a two-on-one break, and while Carruthers’ shot on the short side missed, Clarance took the puck off the end boards and tucked it into the unguarded side of the cage at 15:14. It was the third goal of the weekend and 10th of the year for Clarance.
Andy Marchetti redirected a shot from the point by DiLauro past Colgate goalie David Cann at 17:22 of the third period to give the Saints a two-goal cushion and SLU rode out the final minutes with two power play opportunities.
