Feb. 7: Junior wing
Tommy Thompson scored on a pair of breakaways and St. Lawrence exploded for five second period goals en route a 7-1 win over Union College and its seventh straight win in ECAC Hockey action at Appleton Arena in Canton on Saturday night.
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The Saints had their most productive period since the second game of the season in the second period and opened up a 6-0 lead after two. It went to 7-0 midway through the third before Union freshman Ryan Scarfo spoiled
Kyle Hayton's shutout bid with just 1:01 to go in the game. SLU has now won eight of its last nine, all in league play and remains in second place in the ECAC at 12-4-0 in league play and 16-10-2 overall. The Saints trail Quinnipiac by three points in the standings and the two teams meet on Friday night.
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The current seven-game win streak is the longest for a Saint team since the 1999-2000 team, which went 27-8-2 and made the NCAA Frozen Four. That time opened the year 8-0 and then had two nine-game win streaks during the year.
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Thompson scored his sixth of the year at 13:13 of the first period as he took a pass near the Union blue line from
Gunnar Hughes and broke in on Union starter Colin Stevens, tucking the puck past the goalie as he cut across the goal mouth.
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"I thought it was a real close game for 25 minutes," said Saint coach
Greg Carvel. "I thought they came out with more jump than we did, and we were a little fortunate they didn't cash in on a couple of chances early. Then we were very opportunistic in the second period and used our speed to great advantage."
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The Saints blew it open in the second period. Freshman
Joe Sullivan started the barrage as he took a lead pass from
Brian Ward, got a step on the Union defense and tucked one past Stevens' outstretched pad as he skated across the crease 43 seconds into the period. Sophomore
Alexander Dahl buried a rebound of a shot by defenseman
Ben Masella at 1:50 and Thompson intercepted a Union pass on a power play and broke away shorthanded, putting his seventh of the year past Union backup goaltender Alex Sakellaropoulos at 5:40 to make it a 4-0 game. Junior
Sean McGovern scored his sixth of the year and freshman defenseman
Nolan Gluchowski scored his fourth on a power play at 17:42 for the big Saint lead after two perods.
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Freshman
Ryan Lough made it a 7-0 game at 9:50 of the third as 14 different Saint players had points in the game. Union freshman Ryan Scarfo spoiled Hayton's bid for a Saint season record fifth shutout at 18:59 with a hard shot to the upper corner for his ninth goal of the year.
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"Not getting the shutout for Kyle was about the only disappointing thing tonight," Carvel added. "Our compete level was excellent and we spread our scoring throughout the lineup."
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Hayton, who has allowed just 1.33 goals per game and has a .958 save percentage in SLU's 8-1 league streak since the start of the new year finished with 32 saves while Stevens and Sakellaropoulos combined for 31 saves for Union.
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