University of Western Ontario goaltender Scott Dickie came through with a spectacular display of goaltending to lead the Mustangs to a 4-1 exhibition victory over St. Lawrence University at Appleton Arena Saturday night.
Dickie, who played in the professional American Hockey League for Springfield prior to entering Western Ontario, made 59 saves, 26 of them in the second period, to hold off the Saints. It was the second exhibition win over a U.S. team for the Mustangs, who beat Ferris State, 4-3, earlier this month.
St. Lawrence went with a younger lineup for the exhibition and did not play many of its star players, including pre-season all league selections T.J. Trevelyan and Mike Madill.
“We used the game to give our younger guys some ice time under game conditions, and I thought some of the guys did a pretty good job,” said Saint coach Joe Marsh. “Obviously we would have liked to have done better on the scoreboard, but we did create a lot of opportunities against an older team which has some pretty good talent.”
Western Ontario greeted Saint goalie John Hallas, making his first collegiate start and just his second appearance, with a power-play goal on the first shot of the game. Kevin Richardson scored just seven seconds into the first Mustang power play to make it 1-0 at 1:26 of the first period. The Saints spent most of the first eight minutes of the game shorthanded, but killed off three other Mustang power plays. Western Ontario made it 2-0 at 9:01 when Boucher tipped a shot from the point by Ryan Waldner past Hallas.
The Saints sliced the lead in half when Max Taylor scored just 1:40 into the second period, but a spectacular period by Dickie kept the Saints from getting closer. The Mustangs regained their two-goal lead when Richardson scored his second of the night 8:38.
The Saints kept the pressure on in the third, but couldn’t solve Dickie, and the Mustangs iced the win when Steve Benedetti scored an empty net goal with 7.6 seconds to go in the game.
