CANTON, N.Y. — St. Lawrence capped a 2-0 start with a win over Rochester Institute of Technology on Saturday with a 5-1 win at Appleton Arena.
A balanced attack with goals in every period and from five different skaters helped the Saints go undefeated to begin the season.
St Lawrence opened the scoring around the midpoint of the first period. Alex Hagen and Sean McGovern finished off a two-on-two rush when McGovern backhanded a pass to Hagen, who tapped the puck past Tigers goalie Mike Rotolo.
Gavin Bayreuther’s wrist shot from the high slot beat Rotolo over the pad to extend the lead to two about five minutes later. Rotolo finished with 34 saves while his counterpart, Kyle Hayton, made 19 for the win.
Despite two penalties, the Tigers managed to head to the locker room trailing only by two.
RIT’s penalty kill was the lone bright spot for Tigers coach Wayne Wilson. “Our penalty kill we did a pretty good job on, but not enough other opportunities,” he said.
Eric Sweetman’s slap shot made it 3-0 around the midpoint of the second period.
“That was a designed play, trying to get the puck from the forwards to the defensemen,” said Sweetman. “I just put the puck on net and it went in.”
Things could have gotten out of hand quickly, but RIT managed to keep the game close with a goal just 33 seconds later. A scrum in front of the net caused Hayton to lose track of the puck, which trickled over the line. The goal was credited to Garret McMullen.
Two third-period goals sealed the win for St. Lawrence. Woody Hudson netted his first of the season after Bayreuther won a battle to keep the puck in the zone. His pass connected to Hudson in the left faceoff dot before the junior winger beat Rotolo high blocker.
Christian Horn’s backhander from the slot at the 13:21 mark of the third iced the Saints win and their 2-0 start.
Despite the strong opening weekend, assistant captain Sweetman said the Saints still have work to do.
“It feels good,” he said. “The guys are positive, but we know we have to tighten some things up.”
Saints coach Greg Carvel emphasized the depth of his team after the win, where five different skaters scored. Only Christian Horn has more than one goal on the season.
“I think you are going to see the same thing all year,” Carvel said. “We have four lines that can score.”
It still was not a perfect effort for the Saints.
“There were parts of the game I didn’t like,” said Carvel. “I think our power play wasn’t great and I want to see us catch our freshmen up a bit.”
After losing 6-0 to Clarkson on Friday, Wilson told his players that they shouldn’t expect to be perfect on the opening weekend. Despite the lopsided scores, it wasn’t all negatives for the Tigers.
“They were just much quicker. Very well coached and we just couldn’t keep up with them,” said Wilson. “We had our moments but not enough.”
The Saints will travel to New Hampshire and Merrimack next weekend while RIT hosts Bowling Green on Saturday.