Freshman center Brock McBride snapped a 2-2 tie with his third goal of the season with 7:08 to play in regulation and sophomore goaltender Justin Pesony shut down the University of Massachusetts-Lowell after a two-goal first period as St. Lawrence University skated to a 4-2 win over UMass.-Lowell Friday night.
The Saints, ranked 12th nationally, improved to 12-4-0 overall and won its eighth in nine tries at Appleton Arena. UML, coming off a long layoff, is now 4-8-0.
“It was a hard-hitting game, perhaps the most physical we have seen all season,” said Saint coach Joe Marsh. “I thought the guys reacted pretty well and once again, they didn’t panic when they fell behind. It took us a while to get things going the way we wanted, but we played a very solid third period and created and converted on some great chances.”
The Riverhawks showed few ill effects from a two-week layoff as they jumped out to a 2-0 first period lead. Senior captain Danny O’Brien put the Riverhawks on the board at 7:38 of the first period when he jammed home a rebound of a shot by Elias Godoy. It went to 2-0 on a Riverhawk power play at 18:21 as Mark Roebothan tipped a shot from the point by defenseman Cleve Kinley past Saint goalie Justin Pesony.
The Saints got one back with the only goal of the second as senior T.J. Trevelyan scored his third of the year on a power play rebound after a drive from the point by freshman defenseman Jared Ross at 9:21.
Junior center Kyle Rank tied the game for the Saints as he blasted a shot into the upper corner from the top of the faceoff circle for his eighth of the year just 1:31 into the final period. McBride then tipped a shot by sophomore Charlie Giffin past Riverhawk goalie Peter Vetri for the game winner at 12:52 and Trevelyan scored his fourth of the year into the empty net with 39 seconds to play.
Pesony finished the game with 29 saves for his 11th win of the year and had a number of big ones in the first half of the game to keep the Saints in contention. Vetri had 40 saves for the Riverhawks, 17 of them in the first period.
“Justin was outstanding again tonight. He is a real competitor and the guys blocked some shots in front of him. He made a couple of saves that kept it from turning into a big early deficit and allowed us to come back to win,” Marsh said.
