Sophomore forwards Sean Dersch and Brian Ihnacak scored two goals each and freshman goaltender Adam D’Alba won his third straight start as Brown topped St. Lawrence, 4-1, despite being outshot 43-24. Brown swept its North Country series and improved to 4-4-1 overall and 3-3-1 in the ECACHL.
St. Lawrence, a 4-2 winner over Harvard on Friday night, went into the Brown game looking for its first sweep of a weekend series against Harvard and Brown in four seasons, but had to settle for the split despite dominating the game.
The Saints dominated the first period, outshooting Brown 15-2, but had just one goal to show for it. T.J. Trevleyan scored the goal, his eighth of the year, snapping a power-play rebound past Brown goalie Adam D’Alba 5:03 into the game.
The Saints had an apparent goal by Stace Page waved off midway through the period when it was ruled a hand pass preceded Page’s shot over D’Alba’s shoulder and another shot by Trevelyan hit the cross bar and dropped straight down before being cleared off the goal line.
“If either one or those or both go in, it is probably a very different hockey game,” said Saint coach Joe Marsh. “Our guys turned in a great effort both nights, but it was one of those games in which a hot goaltender makes a big difference. D’Alba made some huge saves and we missed some open nets and sent some rebounds just wide.”
Brown found a little more offense in the second period and pulled even in the game when Sean Dersch put a rebound of a shot by defenseman Sean Hurley back past Saint goalie Mike McKenna at 9:47 to make it a 1-1 game after two periods.
The Bears took the lead on Dersch’s second of the game at 8:17 of the third as he chipped one in off McKenna’s shoulder and Ihnacak added some insurance at 13:42 when he scored his sixth of the year from the deep slot. Ihnacak added an empty net goal with one second left.
D’Alba was spectacular on two Saint power plays in the third period and had 16 of his 42 saves in the final 20 minutes of action. McKenna finished with 20 saves for the Saints.
