CANTON, N.Y. — Two early power-play goals and a three-point night from Nolan Gluchowski propelled St. Lawrence to a 6-2 win over Brown, the Saints’ first victory in 2016.
The two power-play goals marked SLU’s first game with multiple power-play goals since a 6-3 win over Colgate on Dec. 5.
Tommy Thompson opened the scoring for SLU with the first of the two man-advantage goals just over three minutes into the game.
“Gavin [Bayreuther] made a nice play and saw that no one was on me,” said Thompson. “He just put the puck to the net. I just turned around and tried to find it, saw it was right in front of me and put it back.”
Alex Hagen gave the Saints a 2-0 lead less than three minutes later on a similar goal. He capitalized on a rebound and found the puck in a scrum of players before forcing it past Tim Ernst.
The play evened out after the two goals, but the Saints carried their 2-0 lead into the second period.
Christian Horn scored from a sharp angle on a partial breakaway to give SLU a 3-0 lead, at which point Tyler Steel replaced Ernst in net for Brown.
Gluchowski scored his first goal from the slot 1:33 later on the first shot Steel faced. Jacob Pritchard won a puck battle in the corner and centered the puck to Gluchowski, who was unmarked in the slot.
“I just got on the ice, and [Pritchard] just threw it and I knew I was just gonna fake it and get it on net – I wasn’t really trying to score,” said Gluchowski.
Tommy Marchin scored a late power-play marker for the Bears, ripping a one-time snapshot from the low slot past Kyle Hayton to make it a 4-1 game heading into the third period.
Joe Sullivan scored on a breakaway to make it 5-1 around the 14-minute mark of the third, but Tyler Bird answered for Brown just 17 seconds later, firing a wrist shot past Hayton from the right faceoff circle to keep the deficit at three goals.
Gluchowski scored with under a minute remaining to ice the win for the Saints, who go to 11-10-2 on the year.
“This was an excellent game from start to finish,” said SLU coach Greg Carvel. “I’m very, very happy with the game.”
After a five-game losing streak where much was said about the Saints’ struggles on offense, Carvel enjoyed talking about a win and putting the streak behind him.
“There was never a sense of panic in the locker room,” said Carvel. “It’s probably more of a sigh of relief for us so that fans and media can stop talking about the losing streak.”
Bears’ bench boss Brendan Whittet was less positive after the loss.
“I thought we were ready to go, but we put ourselves in penalty trouble right off the bat,” said Whittet. “I didn’t think we got enough out of the guys that we count on. I thought we didn’t play hard enough. We weren’t physical enough, we let them dictate, and that won’t happen again. There’s an accountability with these guys when they put on that uniform.”
