CANTON, N.Y. — St. Lawrence may be a team that prides itself on depth, but in a 4-1 win over Vermont, the ice belonged to the Saints top line of Mike Marnell, Brian Ward and Tommy Thompson.
“Your first line once and a while needs to be your best line,” said Saints coach Greg Carvel. “Tonight, it was.”
Marnell’s two goals propelled the Saints to an early lead and Thompson and Ward followed suit for the victory over SLU’s former ECAC rival.
“Marnell has been a big part of our offense, and it was nice to get him going tonight,” said Carvel.
Marnell’s first goal came on the power play 7:31 into the contest. With Alexx Privitera off for hooking, Gavin Bayreuther slid the puck to Ward along the half-boards, who sent a pass through the slot to Marnell, who capitalized on the virtually empty net.
“I got a pass from Brian [Ward] in the slot,” said Marnell. “It was basically an empty net.”
Marnell got credit for the second Saints goal, roughly six minutes later, but a series of deflections saw the puck eventually bounce off of Mario Puskarich of UVM and past Catamounts goalie Packy Munson.
SLU went up 3-0 on Thompson’s goal at the 13:45 mark of the second period. Munson stopped Sean McGovern’s initial shot, but Thompson collected the rebound and fired a slapshot past Munson.
Jarrid Privitera brought the Catamounts within two with a tic-tac-toe power play goal with 58 seconds left in the period. He combined with his brother, Alexx, and Kevin Irwin on a series of passes that culminated in a tap in goal to the left of Saints netminder Kyle Hayton.
Ward struck early in the third on the power play for SLU to open up a three-goal lead again, finishing a pass from Woody Hudson with a quick snap shot just below the right faceoff dot.
“We got some bounces tonight and we were able to put in some rebounds,” said Ward of his line’s performance in the game.
After the contest, UVM coach Kevin Sneddon did not mince his words.
“We were terrible tonight,” said Sneddon. “The better team won tonight. We got what we deserved, except for our goalie.”
Munson finished the game with 28 saves after shutting the Saints out last night in Burlington in his first collegiate start, while Hayton stopped 41 shots in a game where both goaltenders made magnificent saves.
“We played a really good game from start to finish,” said Carvel. “I thought the shots were close, but the chances were pretty lopsided.”
“It was definitely a big win,” added Ward. “We came out flat last night and we didn’t want to end the break on that.”
St. Lawrence is off until a set of games at home against Northeastern on Jan. 8-9, while Vermont has one game left in 2015, a matchup with Union on Dec. 29.