Junior center Rich Peverley completed a seven-point weekend with the game-winning goal and an assist on an insurance goal as St. Lawrence came back from a 3-1 deficit to upend Yale, 5-3, on Saturday night.
Peverley, who had two goals and three assists in a 9-4 win over Princeton on Friday, helped the Saints to their first weekend sweep of the season. SLU, now 10-18-4 overall and 7-11-2 in the ECAC, maintained its hopes for home ice in the first round of the playoffs. Yale, battling for a first-round bye, is 17-10-0 overall and 13-7-0 in the ECAC.
“That is a huge win for us,” said Saints coach Joe Marsh. “It is a real momentum builder heading into the final weekend of the regular season, and I think the way we did it against a high-caliber opponent is a real positive as well. Our third period was as good a period as we have played all year both offensively and defensively.”
Yale jumped out to an early 2-0 lead as freshman Jeff Hristovski scored his seventh of the season from the top of the faceoff circle in the Saint zone at 12:38 of the first period, and Ryan Steeves scored his 14th of the year on a power play redirection at 14:17.
The Saints battled back into contention when sophomore Colin FitzRandolph scored his second of the season at 15:26. The Elis made it a 3-1 game at 4:44 of the second period when freshman Zach Mayer scored on a power play tip in, but the Saints cut it to a one-goal game again at 9:46 when junior Ziga Petac put a rebound into an empty net for his fifth of the season.
St. Lawrence pulled even 2:06 into the third period when freshman T.J. Trevelyan completed an end-to-end rush with an unassisted power-play goal, and Peverley scored the eventual game winner on another end-to-end rush at 5:06. Sophomore defenseman Matt Macdonald added an insurance goal with 13:14 to play.
“T.J.’s goal was a big one in terms of starting us on the way back, but Rich Peverley had a super weekend for us and really got things rolling,” said Marsh. “Matt Macdonald has really been coming on in terms of confidence, and he showed it on our fifth goal — he held the puck to create an opening and then gunned it under the crossbar.”
Sophomore goalie Kevin Ackley turned in a 24-save performance for the win for the Saints, while Yale freshman Josh Gartner finished with 32 stops for Yale.
