The St. Lawrence men's hockey team erased a two-goal third-period deficit and earned the extra conference point in a shootout after skating to a 2-2 tie with Rensselaer on Friday night at Appleton Arena.
Goals from
Sam LeDrew and
Gunnar Thoreson sparked the comeback before the Saints prevailed in the shootout to open ECAC Hockey play.
The Saints moved to 0-3-1 overall and 0-0-1 in league play, while the Engineers earned one conference point after the tie and saw their record move to 4-4-1 overall with an 0-2-1 mark in conference action.
The opening period featured strong goaltending and plenty of opportunities at both ends.
Cameron Smith turned aside chances from several RPI forwards, while
Luke Posthumus,
Nicholas Beneteau and
Andrew Brown generated early offense for the Scarlet and Brown.
St. Lawrence earned a pair of power-play opportunities in the first period and nearly broke through on both.
Cooper Pierson had multiple shots turned aside by Nate Krawchuk, while
Cayden Casey created pressure around the crease, but the Engineers kept the game scoreless.
RPI grabbed the lead late in the opening frame when Luke Goukler found the back of the net with 2:56 remaining in the period, sending the visitors into the intermission with a 1-0 advantage.
The second period remained scoreless despite chances on both sides. Smith continued his strong play in goal, denying opportunities from Grayson Burzynski, Jordan Gavin and Kazimier Sobieski. At the other end, Brown generated multiple shots on goal and Beneteau tested Krawchuk in the closing seconds, but the Engineers maintained their one-goal lead through 40 minutes.
RPI doubled its advantage just 3:10 into the third period when Simon Motew scored to make it 2-0.
The Saints answered quickly. Just 44 seconds later,
Owen Tylec and Pierson battled along the side wall in the RPI zone and worked the puck free to LeDrew, who carried it into the slot and snapped home his third goal of the season at the 3:54 mark to cut the deficit in half.
After successfully killing off an RPI power play later in the period, St. Lawrence found the equalizer. At 7:43, an Engineers faceoff win was swatted up ice by
Luke Santilli to Thoreson. The senior assistant captain slipped a pass to Posthumus on the right wing and got behind the defense for the return feed before beating Krawchuk to tie the game at 2-2.
The Scarlet and Brown continued to press for the go-ahead goal. Pierson, Casey, Thoreson,
Jan Olenginski and Brown all generated chances during the remainder of regulation, while Smith and the Saints penalty kill held firm when RPI received another man advantage late in the contest.
Neither team found the winner in overtime, though St. Lawrence came close. LeDrew generated multiple opportunities, and Pierson rang a shot off the post with just over three minutes remaining in the extra session as the Saints outshot the Engineers 7-3 in overtime.
The game moved to a shootout, where RPI converted in the second round before Casey answered for the Saints in round three. The shootout remained even until the fifth round, when
James Fisher scored for St. Lawrence. After the Engineers were unable to answer and Smith came up with a huge poke check, the Saints secured the shootout victory and the extra ECAC point.
Smith finished the night with 33 saves, while Krawchuk stopped 29 shots for RPI. St. Lawrence blocked 26 shots, went 0-for-2 on the power play and successfully killed all five Engineer power-play opportunities.
St. Lawrence will be back on the ice at Appleton Arena tomorrow when the Saints host No. 17 Union in a 7 p.m. contest.
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