Sophomore wing Tim Plant scored his first career hat trick, the third goal into an empty net, to lead Vermont to a 4-1 victory at St. Lawrence on Friday night.
Vermont snapped a six-game winless streak at St. Lawrence’s Appleton Arena and improved to 6-9-3 overall (3-5-0 ECAC). The injury-plagued Saints fell to 4-13-3 overall (1-6-1).
The Saints scored the only goal of the first period at 15:49 when the puck bounced off defenseman Tony Maci and right onto the stick of junior wing Rich Peverley, who snapped a wrist shot past UVM goalie Shawn Conshafter for his fifth goal of the season and fourth in the last three games.
Sophomore center Brady Leisenring started a three-goal flurry for the Catamounts in the second period when he redirected a shot from the point past Saints goalie Kevin Ackley on a power play at 7:48. The Catamounts took the lead on the first of two goals by Plant, as he scored his second of the year on a two-on-one with Jeff Miles. Plant then tipped a shot from the point by Jaime Sifers past Ackley at 17:01 to make it 3-1 after two periods.
Conshafter made 14 of his 32 saves in the third period to protect the lead, and Plant completed his hat trick with a power-play shot into an empty Saints net with 36 seconds to play.
“Vermont played a real solid game,” said St. Lawrence coach Joe Marsh. “We had to keep it close because we are missing Blair Clarance, our leading scorer, and Colin FitzRanolph, another solid center, due to injury and it obviously impacted us offensively. Vermont took it to us for about a 10-minute span in the second period, and we just couldn’t get it back.
“Conschafter made some big saves in key situations in the third period and their defense blocked a ton of shots.”
