St. Lawrence captain Erik Anderson broke up a scoreless goaltending battle between the Saints’ Jeremy Symington and Yale’s Dan Lombard with just eight seconds gone in overtime to lift the Saints to a 1-0 victory Saturday night.
Anderson won the opening draw to start the overtime period and wing Alan Fyfe sent the puck ahead to Mike Gellard, who took a shot on Lombard from his knees. Lombard stopped the initial shot, but couldn’t cover the puck and Anderson chipped it over his shoulder for his 11th goal of the season and the Saint win.
St. Lawrence improves to 11-9-4 overall and 8-3-3 in the ECAC, good for a second-place tie with Harvard, while Yale drops to 10-11 (6-8 ECAC).
“That was a great hockey game,” said Saint coach Joe Marsh. “I think both teams really answered the bell after disappointments last night, and it was a great one for us to win.
“Both goaltenders made game saving plays in the second period, and Jeremy came up with a big one on [Luke] Earl with less than a minute to go in regulation.”
Symington had 34 saves to record his first career shutout, returning to action after missing a week of action with a deep cut on his arm sustained in practice. Lombard had 38 saves for the Elis.
The game couldn’t have been any closer through the first two periods. Each goaltender had 27 saves, each team had one shot go off a post and the total shot attempts were 47-46 with Yale holding the miniscule edge.
Symington came up with a spectacular glove save on a one-time shot by Yale’s Jeff Hamilton on a second period Eli power play and Lombard broke up Ray DiLauro’s shorthanded breakaway for the Saints with 27 seconds to go in the second period to deny the game’s best scoring chances.
“We played a solid defensive game tonight, and Gellard and Anderson combined for a great play to win it,” Marsh said. “Gellard battled through a stick check to get an accurate shot off from his knees and Anderson was right there to put it away. Those two are always making big plays for us, and they don’t come much bigger than that.”
