CANTON, N.Y. — In its first home ECAC contest of 2014-15, St. Lawrence defeated Dartmouth 2-1 Friday night.
With the win, the Saints improve to 2-2 in ECAC play. It was Dartmouth’s first loss of the year.
St. Lawrence opened the scoring midway through the opening period with a power-play goal from captain Amanda Boulier. On the play, Boulier received a pass from Brooke Webster and her slap shot that hit a body in front and popped over the shoulder of Dartmouth goalie Robyn Shemago with 11:08 remaining in the first.
Both teams had power-play chances though the rest of the first, but neither team was able to score again.
The Saints took a 2-0 lead with less than five minutes remaining in the second period on Kennedy Marchment’s team-leading fifth goal.
“Brooke [Webster] and Jackie [Wand] battled down low hard and we got a lucky bounce and it popped out into the slot and I did my best to get a stick on it,” said Marchment.
After her assist on the first St. Lawrence goal, Marchment’s goal gave her the third multi-point game of the season.
Neither team could score in the last four minutes and St. Lawrence headed into the third leading 2-0.
The third period saw no scoring until late, when Laura Stacey brought the Big Green within one of the Saints. She intercepted a St. Lawrence pass out of the SLU defensive zone and walked in on Saints’ goalie Carmen MacDonald, beating the SLU netminder, who finished with 27 saves.
“I thought I would make a nice move on her and it ended up in the back of the net,” Stacey said.
Dartmouth coach Mark Hudak lauded Stacey after the contest.
“Laura, she’s a good hockey player, she’s got good instincts on the ice,” he said.
Dartmouth tried to equalize by pulling Shemago with less than a minute remaining in the game, but the Saints were able to hold off the Big Green for the win.
Hudak was pleased with the effort of his players after the game.
“I was pretty happy with the effort overall,” he said. “I thought we were a little loose in the first and second period.”
He also praised both goaltenders, saying both made important saves for their teams.
St. Lawrence coach Chris Wells echoed those same sentiments.
“I think it was a really good game for us,” Wells said. “I thought the teams were evenly matched.”
Wells mentioned SLU’s ability to contain the talent of Dartmouth, something he wanted his team to carry into the future, as well as their back check, which he thought was key to their success against the Big Green.
