Junior wing T.J. Trevelyan scored two goals and assisted on a third to lead St. Lawrence to a 6-4 victory over 10th-ranked Miami in a game which gave the ECACHL two points in the Commissioner’s Cup competition.
The Saints, now 3-3-1 overall, improved to 3-0-1 in the first game of a weekend set while Miami, which will play at rematch at SLU on Saturday, dropped its third straight and is now 4-3-0.
“It was a very solid performance against a very good team,” said Saint coach Joe Marsh. “Miami handled our forecheck as well as anyone has this season early in the game, but we were able to make some adjustments, and I was very happy with the way we played offensively.”
Miami jumped out to an early 1-0 lead as Chris Michael scored his third of the year on a five-on-three power play from right in front of Saint goalie Mike McKenna with 3:27 gone in the game.
The Saints pulled even on a power play of their own at 12:06 as senior defenseman Matt Macdonald took Trevelyan’s pass and scored his third of the year, but Miami went back in front 2-1 with 2:19 to go in the first as Todd Grant scored his third of the year with the teams skating five-on-five.
Junior Adam Hogg tied it for the Saints with a shorthanded goal just 27 seconds into the second period and Mike Zbriger scored on a breakaway, netting his first of the year at 9:55 to give the Saints a 3-2 lead.
Junior wing John Zeiler then made a great play to keep the puck in the offensive zone and fed Trevelyan for his third of the season at 13:11 and after Matt Christie scored on a power play for the RedHawks to cut the Saint lead to 4-3 with 45 seconds to go in the period,
Trevelyan scored on a Saint power play with just nine seconds left to make it 5-3 after two.
Sophomore Max Taylor scored his second of the year for the Saints just 11 seconds into the third period and chased Miami goalie Brandon Crawford-West from the nets. Crawford-West, who went into the game with a 1.40 goals against average, gave way to Charlie Effinger, who shut the Saints down the rest of the way.
McKenna did give up Nathan Davis’ second of the year for Miami with 5:40 gone in the third, but had 13 of his 30 saves in the period to hold on for the win.
“We had another solid performance on the penalty kill against a very skilled power play and picked up a couple ourselves,” Marsh added. “We are just trying to get better in certain areas each time out, and I think we are making the kind of progress that we want to see.”
The Saints improved to 2-1-0 against CCHA competition with the win and earned the ECACHL it’s third and fourth points in the Commissioner’s Cup series which will include designated inter-league games throughout the season. Friday’s game was the only Commissioner’s Cup game for the Saints.
