In their final regular season matchup, the Cornell Big Red and St. Lawrence Saints played an entertaining and up-tempo game that was ultimately claimed by St. Lawrence by a score of 2-1 in overtime.
The first period was a fairly even 20 minutes, with each team firing nine shots on net. Ultimately, only one puck went in off the stick of Cornell’s Jake Weidner on a power play. Weidner was camped in the slot and Matt Buckles found him with a pass from below the goal line. Weidner fired a one-timed snap shot past Hayton at the 11:08 mark of the opening period. Trevor Yates was credited with the other assist on the play.
The second period saw no scoring, but not for a lack of opportunities. Four power plays, three to the Big Red, yielded only frustration for both teams, as the goaltenders put on a clinic.
It was in the final 20 minutes and change that the Saints came marching back. They outshot the Big Red by a 17-9 margin in the final period, but it took more than 12 minutes to final solve Mitch Gillam, who finished with 36 saves in the losing effort.
The tying goal was scored by Gavin Bayreuther, who slid across the blue line and dropped into the slot before firing a shot past Gillam.
“It was a rebound that came back up, and Pritchard made a nice play, my guy kind of went to him,” said Bayreuther. “I just put it on net and I think there was a guy in front of the net. Once we had one, we had all the momentum.”
“There’s not many defensemen that can really score goals, and he can score goals,” said Saints coach Greg Carvel. “That’s a heck of a shot; not many defenseman have the skill and poise to hold the puck and put it where he did.”
The Big Red had chances to open up a lead again, including a late power play with just over five minutes to play, but the Saints penalty kill held fast.
“We needed the special teams tonight,” said Carvel. “After that first power play, we did a real nice job.”
The extra period lasted for only 20 seconds before Joe Sullivan netted the game-winner for SLU.
“It was a great forecheck by Tommy (Thompson); I believe and it came to me, and I just took it to the net, and I was lucky it went in,” said Sullivan.
“It’s huge,” said Carvel about the win. “It’s absolutely huge. We’ve won three of four games, and it even could have been four if we had a little better start against Yale.”
“It was nice to get the sweep but it means nothing for next weekend,” said Bayreuther, as the Saints travel to Rensselaer and Union next weekend.
For Big Red coach Mike Schafer, the tough stretch of games for Cornell isn’t enough to lose confidence.
“It’s frustrating to lose, we came out in the third and got run around a little bit,” said Schafer. “We had a tough weekend, but there’s things we can take out of it.”
