CANTON, N.Y. – St. Lawrence skated to a dominant 8-2 win over Robert Morris on Friday at Appleton Arena. The St. Lawrence top line of Brooke Webster, Kennedy Marchment and Alex Moore was a formidable force throughout the game.
The Saints opened the scoring less than five minutes in when Marchment took a feed from Moore behind the Colonials net and snapped it past RMU goalie Courtney Vinet. Moore said after the game that her line played well, and had a lot of chemistry.
Just over a minute later, St. Lawrence senior Jackie Wand found her classmate Jess Hon streaking through the middle, and Hon lifted a backhand over the shoulder of Vinet to give the Saints a quick 2-0 lead.
The first period ended with a 2-0 score in favor of St. Lawrence, despite a five-on-three opportunity for the Saints. Robert Morris coach Paul Colontino said that kill was a boost to his squad.
“We had a nice kill on the five-on-three,” said Colontino. “That helped us out of a really slow start.”
The scoring continued for the Saints in the second, where they received goals from junior Kailee Heidersbach and assistant captain Kayla Raniwsky. The Colonials also struck that period with a power-play goal to bring them within three goals when the buzzer sounded to end the second period.
The Webster-Moore-Marchment trio went back to work in the third. Marchment provided the pass to captain Amanda Boulier that gave SLU a 5-1 lead, and later, Webster collected a rebound in front and fired it past Vinet to give St. Lawrence a 6-2 lead. Vinet was then replaced in net by Jessica Dodds.
Moore was happy with the way her line played throughout the whole game; they finished with two goals and five total points in the contest, including Webster’s team-leading fourth
“I think we had a lot of chemistry, we kept it down low, made a lot of good passes,” said Moore.
When the final horn sounded, Colontino had a simple message for his team.
“This game’s over; tomorrow is a new day.”
St. Lawrence coach Chris Wells liked the way his team responded in the third period after being outplayed by the Colonials in the second.
“I liked the kickback we had in the third, because I thought Robert Morris outplayed us in the second,” said Wells.
Wells was especially pleased with his top line, saying, “They were able to make some nice plays.”
However, he praised his entire roster, saying the win was a team effort and the Saints’ depth is fantastic. St. Lawrence received two goals from its defensive corps in the win, including first year Amanda McClure’s first career goal.
Carmen MacDonald recorded 19 saves through two and three quarters periods before first year Brooke Wolejko replaced her and made five saves.
The teams resume play against each other at Appleton at 2:00 p.m. Saturday.
