CANTON, N.Y. — A five-goal second period powered St. Lawrence to a 7-1 victory over Union as the Saints won their seventh in a row, propelling them towards the top of the ECAC standings.
The Saints got a breakaway goal from Tommy Thompson in the first period to go up 1-0. Thompson found himself left alone on the Union blueline, and Saints’ captain Gunnar Hughes was able to find him with a stretch pass. Thompson walked down the left wing and deked forehand to backhand before sliding the puck between Colin Stevens’ pads for the goal 13:13 into the game.
While SLU coach Greg Carvel described the first as a daily even period, the second was anything but even. Joe Sullivan started the scoring just 43 seconds in, deking to the backhand in close, then pulling the puck to his forehand and holding just long enough for Stevens to go down before shooting for the 2-0 lead.
Alex Dahl followed suit 1:07 later and then Thompson potted his second of the night 3:50 later on a shorthanded breakaway. A Union defender fumbled the puck at the SLU blueline, and Thompson sped away towards Alex Sakellaropoulos, who replaced Stevens after the third goal. After deking on the fist goal, Thompson chose to fire a quick snapshot over Sakellaropoulos’s glove hand for the 4-0 lead.
Sean McGovern scored on a deflection at the 11:04 mark, and Nolan Gluchowski scored the lone power-play goal in a penalty-filled game at the 17:42 mark.
After a five-goal second period, the two-goal third period was relatively calm in terms of scoring, but there was plenty of extra curricular activity between the two teams.
Ryan Lough scored on a snap shot from the slot for the seventh SLU goal before Ryan Scarfo spoiled Kyle Hayton’s shutout bid with 1:01 left in the contest, beating Hayton high glove.
After the 7-1 blowout, Union coach Rick Bennett did not have a lot of positive things to say about his team’s performance, calling the Dutchmen a “part-time team.”
Bennett felt his star players were not up to the challenge that St. Lawrence presented, and gave all the credit to the Saints, saying, “They did all the things required to win a game 7-1.”
Carvel was proud of the effort of his team, especially his goalie.
“We have a level we want to play at every night and we did a good job of playing at it tonight,” said Carvel. “Things are going our way and Kyle is making the saves we need.”
Despite the seven-game winning streak, Sullivan emphasized the fact that the Saints aren’t getting ahead of themselves.
“We’re taking it one game at a time,” he said. “And it’s working for us right now.”
