Junior wing Stace Page snapped a 2-2 tie with his first goal in 18 games, and St. Lawrence added two late third-period goals en route a 5-2 win over Mercyhurst Saturday night.
The Saints, now 6-10-3, conclude pre-Christmas play with a three-game win streak, while Mercyhurst drops to 6-6-1 on the year.
“The final score doesn’t really indicate how close the game was,” said Saint coach Joe Marsh. “Mercyhurst refused to go away when we took the lead and fought back into it. It was a real good test for us against a solid team and it was a good way to finish the first semester.
“The Page-Petac-Zbriger line turned in a second straight solid performance and came through with another clutch goal for us, and we got another big night from our first line,” Marsh added. “And, while he didn’t have a lot of saves, Kevin Ackley made some great ones. It was a third straight strong performance by everyone on the roster.”
While Page’s goal was the game winner, another productive night from the first line of T.J. Trevelyan, Rich Peverley and John Zeiler helped the Saints to the win. Trevelyan and Zeiler each had a goal and an assist and Peverley had two assists in the game.
The Saints dominated the first period, outshooting the Lakers 18-7, but came out of it with just a 1-0 lead. Freshman defenseman Drew Bagnall scored the goal, his third of the year, as his shot from the center slot with two seconds left on a power play went over the shoulder of Mercyhurst goaltender Andy Franck at 4:13.
Franck left the game with 6:16 to go in the first after sustaining an injury while making a save.
St. Lawrence increased its lead to 2-0 at 7:39 of the second period as Trevelyan scored his 11th of the year against Laker freshman Jordan Wakefield, but the Lakers got that one back when the referee ruled that a power-play shot by David Wrigley beat the buzzer to end the period. Wrigley was credited with his fifth of the season at 19:59.9 to make it a 2-1 game after two periods.
The Lakers tied it 3:28 into the third when Peter Rynshoven scored his third of the year in a scramble in front of Ackley, but Page, who scored his only other goal of the year in the Saints’ season opener — it, too, was a game-winner — tucked a rebound past Wakefield at 10:24 to regain the Saint lead.
Sophomore John Zeiler then scored his seventh of the season to give the Saints some breathing room with 2:49 to play, and freshman Kyle Rank scored his second of the season into an empty net to wrap it up at 19:25.
Ackley, who made two saves on breakaways in the second period, finished with 22 stops for the Saints while Franck had 12 and Wakefield 29 for the Lakers.
