Sebastian Borza scored his fifth goal of the season with four minutes to play in regulation to lift Princeton to a 4-4 ECAC Hockey League tie at St. Lawrence Friday night.
Princeton snapped a two-game winless streak and improved to 6-14-2 overall and 4-10-1 on the season while the Saints are now 13-12-2 and 7-7-1 in ECACHL play.
The two teams combined for 49 shots on goal through the first two periods, but were tied 1-1 in a fast-paced game. The goal explosion came in the third period.
Princeton junior wing Mark Masters started the scoring deluge with his second goal of the year 1:26 into the period to give the Tigers a 2-1 lead. Saint junior wing T.J. Trevelyan then responded with a pair of goals just 11 seconds apart to put the Saints in front. Trevelyan scored his 17th of the year at 3:36 and his 18th at 3:47.
Princeton scoring leader Dustin Sproat then pulled the Tigers even when he scored on a breakaway at 4:50 as the teams rang up four goals in under five minutes to start the final period.
Trevelyan put the Saints back in front at the 10 minute mark, completing his second hat trick of the season on a Saint power play, but Borza picked up a rebound off the post and put it back past Saint goalie Mike McKenna to tie it at 4-4 at 16:00.
Neither team scored in a wide-open overtime which included four saves for Tiger goalie Eric Leroux, who finished with 42 for the night, and three for McKenna, who made 29 stops in the game.
“It was one of those games that both teams walk away from feeling that they should have won,” said Saint coach Joe Marsh. “I thought we certainly played well enough to win, but Leroux made some huge saves in key situations for them and Mike McKenna did the same for us.”
While the Saints did everything but score in the first three minutes of the game, outshooting the Tigers 10-2, Princeton scored the only goal of the first period on a power play. Junior center Patrick Neundorfer scored his ninth of the season, putting the puck between the pad of McKenna and the post at 13:47 for the only goal of the first period.
“Perhaps if we get one with the early pressure, it is a different kind of game,” said Marsh. “But you have to give Princeton a lot of credit. They really turn it around in a hurry offensively and it was an up and down game all night long.”
The Saints came back to tie the game 6:57 into the second period as senior Mike Zbriger scored his third of the year, taking a pass from Colin FitzRandolph and tucking the puck past Leroux. The Saints nearly took the lead with 8:14 to go in the period as scoring leader T.J. Trevelyan had a breakaway, but Leroux stopped the first shot and then covered the rebound for two of his 31 saves through two periods.
