Junior center Rich Peverley scored two goals and had three assists and freshman linemate John Zeiler had a goal and four assists as St. Lawrence rolled to a 9-4 victory over Princeton Friday night.
The Saints, now 9-18-4 overall and 6-11-2 in the ECAC, kept hopes for home ice in the first round of the playoffs alive while Princeton, mired in last, saw a winless streak stretch to six games as the Tigers are now 3-22-1 overall and 2-16-1 in the ECAC.
St. Lawrence put the pressure on Princeton early in the game and finally broke through for the first goal when senior captain Blair Clarance tipped a shot from the point by freshman defenseman Mike Madill past Princeton goalie Trevor Clay at 11:09.
It went to 2-0 at 13:47 when defenseman Matt Macdonald put home his own rebound for his second of the year, but the Tigers got that one right back when sophomore Mike Patton took advantage of a Saint giveaway in the SLU end and walked in on goalie Kevin Ackley, scoring his ninth of the year at 14:04.
Sophomore Stace Page re-established the two-goal Saint lead with his fourth of the season from right in front at 15:34. The Saints made it a 4-1 game early in the second period when senior Jim Lorentz scored his team-leading 12th of the year from the short slot at 3:49, but Princeton refused to go away. Junior Dan Hursh scored his fourth of the year on a shot to the upper corner at 6:11, and while the Saints regained their three goal lead on freshman T.J. Trevelyan’s power play goal at 9:39, Patton scored his second of the night at 11:05 to make it a 5-3 game.
Rich Peverley gave the Saints a 6-3 lead after two when he scored his 11th of the season on a power play with 1:15 to go in the period.
“It was like we couldn’t stand prosperity for a while,” said Saint coach Joe Marsh. “Every time it looked like we were going to put it away, Princeton got one back to stay in it.
“We got things rolling toward the end, but we’ve got a big task ahead of us with Yale coming in Saturday. We need to just keep building momentum and minimize our mistakes to keep our home ice hopes alive.”
St. Lawrence added to the lead 7:48 into the third period when defenseman Simon Watson scored his third of the year against Tiger backup goalie Eric Leroux, and while Sebastian Borza got one back for Princeton at 8:36, Peverley scored his second of the night on a wraparound just 18 seconds later. Zeiler completed the scoring with his ninth of the season at 11:25.
