Special teams and goaltending were the name of the game Saturday afternoon as captain Rebecca Russell scored a short-handed goal and a power-play goal to lead St. Lawrence (8-2-1, 1-1-0) to a 2-1 overtime win over Brown (4-4-0, 3-3-0) in ECACHL action. Freshman Meaghan Guckian made 27 saves in net in her sixth win of the season.
Guckian made several point-blank saves early in the first to keep the game scoreless. One of those saves came when Kerry Nugent one-timed a shot from the slot, but Guckian came across the crease to make the save. Midway through the opening stanza, the Saints were forced to kill a 5-on-3 power-play after freshman Annie Guay and senior Whitney Carbone were sent to the box for body checking.
After getting just seven shots off in the first, the Saints came out firing in the second period, outshooting the Bears 14-10. Stacy Silverman came up big for the Bears on a two-on-one short-handed opportunity with Russell and sophomore Chelsea Grills. Grills picked off a pass in the neutral zone and skated in with Russell and one Brown defenseman. Grills drew the defenseman and slid the puck to Russell who got the shot off, but Silverman made the stop.
The scoreless tie would finally be broken, four minutes into the third when junior Myria Heinhuis (Chatham, ONT) slammed home her third goal of the season on a Brown power play. Senior Krissy McManus (Dedham, MA) received her own rebound and made a quick pass to Heinhuis across the crease, which Heinhuis slide past Guckian.
The Saints would counter less then two minutes later, when Rebecca Russell cashed in on a short handed goal. On the penalty kill, Russell pulled in a pass from Grills in the neutral zone and skated in alone on the Brown net. Russell wristed a shot over Silverman’s glove to knot the score at 1-1 with 14:49 to play.
In the overtime period the Bears could not get the puck out of their zone preventing them from getting a shot off. Silverman was rushed with a flurry of shots in the extra period, but stood strong, saving anything that came her way. But at 2:40 in the overtime period, Lauren Deeb was sent to the Brown box for hooking giving the Saints the skater advantage. Freshman Sabrina Harbec took a pass from Grills and fired a shot on Silverman. The Bears netminder made the save, but Russell stuck the puck in for the win.
The Saints return home to face their North Country neighbor – the Clarkson Golden Knights in the first-ever meeting between the two schools. St. Lawrence will host Clarkson at Appleton Arena in a 2:00 p.m. ECACHL match-up at Appleton Arena. Brown hosts Northeastern on Tuesday.
