Senior center Rich Peverley had two goals and an assist during a four-goal second period scoring spree and St. Lawrence went on to post a 5-4 win over archrival Clarkson Saturday.
St. Lawrence improves to 8-14-4 overall and 4-7-1 in the ECAC while Clarkson, which cut into a 5-1 Saint lead but couldn’t find the equalizer, is now 10-9-5 overall and 5-5-2 in the ECAC.
“That was a huge win for us,” said Saints coach Joe Marsh. “Not only because of the rivalry, but also because we really need points in the league if we are going to make a move up the standings. We can definitely use this as a building block and gain some momentum from it.”
The Saints took an early lead when defenseman Ryan Glenn scored his fourth of the year on a shot from the point after a faceoff win in the Clarkson zone at 9:08, but Clarkson came back on a five-on-three power play as Chris Blight tucked home a rebound for his 13th of the year at 16:53.
The Saints had one goal waved off when a penalty was called just as a shot went into the net and that penalty contributed to the Clarkson power play goal to tie the game.
Rank gave the Saints a 2-1 lead when he tapped the puck in on a power play at 2:01 for his third goal in the last three games. That goal opened the floodgates as Peverley scored on a power play at 3:56, then went coast to coast after taking the puck from goalie Kevin Ackley and scored his 10th of the season at 8:09 to make it a 4-1 game.
Clarkson pulled goalie Dustin Traylen for freshman Kyle McNulty following Peverley’s goal, and McNulty ended up with a tough loss when the first shot he saw beat him for the eventual game winning goal.
Senior defenseman Jeremy Cormier completed the Saints’ four-goal burst with his second of the year as he cut in front and tucked the puck past McNulty just 17 seconds after McNulty had entered the game.
It turned out to be the game winner when Clarkson rallied for two third-period goals, but couldn’t come up with the equalizer.
Mike Sullivan cut the lead to 5-3 on a power play scramble at 10:47 and freshman Brodie Rutherglen redirected a shot into the upper corner at 12:39 to make it a one-goal game after the Saints failed in a clearing attempt.
The Knights pulled McNulty for an extra attacker in the final minute, but couldn’t come up with the equalizer.
Ackley finished with 28 saves for his third straight win over the Knights while Traylen had 18 and McNulty 12 for the Golden Knights.
“Nobody thought it was going to be easy,” Marsh said after Clarkson’s comeback. “It was a game a lot like the one two years ago over here. We built a lead, but they came right back and were in it right down to the end. We picked a great time to have our best offensive period of the season in the second period, but down deep you knew Clarkson was going to fight back.”
