Senior captain Adam Hogg snapped a scoreless tie just 1:16 into the third period and added an empty-net goal with 12 seconds to go, and sophomore goaltender Justin Pesony made 20 saves for his second career shutout as St. Lawrence University turned back Yale in an ECACHL game at Appleton Arena Saturday.
The Saints, 18-12-2 overall and 12-7-1 in the ECACHL, maintained their fourth place standing in the ECACHL and a two point lead on Harvard for the final first-round playoff bye. St. Lawrence and Harvard will play in Cambridge Friday night. Yale falls to 8-16-3 overall and 6-11-2 in the ECACHL.
Hogg broke in at a sharp angle and banked the puck off the back of Yale freshman goalie Alec Richards to put the first goal on the board in an outstanding goaltending duel between Richards and Pesony. It was the fourth goal of the year for the Saint captain and was set up by senior classmates Simon Watson and Jamie Parker. It stayed a 1-0 game into the final minute as Pesony stoned Yale with nine saves and Richards prevented further Saint scoring.
Senior John Zeiler gave the Saints a cushion when he blocked a Yale shot with Richards pulled for an extra attacker and fired the puck three quarters of the length of the ice and into the empty net with 37 seconds to go. Yale pulled Richards again and Hogg picked up a rebound of a shot by Kyle Rank and parked it in the empty net for his second of the night with 12 seconds left.
St. Lawrence won for the fourth time in the last five years on Senior Night and are 4-0-1 in those five seasons. The Saints improved to 12-2-1 on home ice, the best regular season record since the 1999-2000 team went 14-1. The Saints concluded the regular season with a 9-1-1 home ice record.
“That was a great hockey game,” said Saint coach Joe Marsh. “Even though it was really a 1-0 game, there was a lot of end to end action and some great saves by both goaltenders. Pesony came up with a couple of huge saves for us, and if he hadn’t come up big on Jeff Hristovski, it might have been a totally different outcome.”
Neither team scored in a fast-paced first period as both goaltenders came through with key saves. Richards had 12 for Yale, which killed off 1:36 of a Saint two-man advantage power play, while Saint sophomore Justin Pesony had eight saves.
It stayed scoreless through two periods, although both teams had golden chances in the second. Saint freshman Kevin DeVergilio had a shot go off the bottom of the crossbar and stay out of the new six minutes into the period ,and Pesony came up with a huge pad save on Jeff Hristovski’s breakaway bid with 1:30 to play in the second.
Richards finished with 27 saves for Yale while Pesony, who gave up just one goal in two weekend games, made 20 for the shutout.
