Sophomore wing Brock McBride scored two goals and assisted on a third as St. Lawrence University downed Dartmouth College 4-1 in an ECAC Hockey League game Saturday night, completing a weekend home sweep and taking sole possession of first place in the league.
The Saints, 14-10-2 overall and 10-3-1 in the ECACHL, improved to 5-1-2 against Dartmouth in Appleton Arena in the last eight games and swept the Big Green for the first time since 2000-01. Dartmouth slips to 9-9-3 overall and 5-6-3 in the ECACHL.
“That was a great effort across the board and a good finish to the weekend,” said Saint coach Joe Marsh. “I thought we played two excellent periods and then weathered the storm a little bit in the third. Dartmouth is a very explosive team offensively and to keep them in check as well as we did is a credit to the entire team.”
The Saints converted on an early power play as senior defenseman Drew Bagnall scored his fifth of the year on a shot from the point which beat Dartmouth goalie Mike Devine along the ice and inside the far post. Kyle Rank and Sean Flanagan assisted on the play just 1:37 into the game.
Dartmouth came back to tie it up at 10:59 of the first when Kevin Swallow sent freshman center Josh Gillam in alone on Saint goalie Alex Petizian and Gillam scored his second of the season with a shot to the upper corner.
The Saints cashed in on the power play again just 35 seconds into the second period as Brock McBride picked up a rebound of a shot by Kevin DeVergilio at the top of the crease and slid it past Devine with Drew Bagnall also assisting for a 2-1 lead. McBride scored his second of the period at 6:56 as he deflected a shot from the center point by freshman defenseman Derek Keller over the shoulder of Devine to make it 3-1 with
Taylor picking up an assist on the play.
Dartmouth killed off 1:34 of a Saint five-on-three power play in the third period and pressured the Saints after returning to full strength, but Petizian made 13 of his 23 saves in the third period to keep the Saints in front. The line of Taylor, DeVergilio and McBride gave the Saints an insurance goal with 2:53 to play as Taylor scored his eighth
of the season from DeVergilio and McBride to make it a 4-1 game.
“I thought we were trying too hard to set up the textbook goal on the five-on-three,” Marsh said. “We had some good chances, but Dartmouth did a good job killing it off and seemed to get a little emotional boost out of it. Alex did a great job with a couple of key saves and then we were able to ice it with the fourth goal.”
St. Lawrence outshot Dartmouth 31-24 with Devine finishing with 27 saves for the Big Green.
