St. Lawrence edged Yale 4-3 Saturday afternoon for their seventh straight win in ECAC play.
Kirsten Padalis opened the scoring for St. Lawrence just two minutes into the contest. Jenna Marks fired a shot on net from the slot that hit the glass behind the Yale net. The puck bounced to the right of Yale goalie Jaimie Leonoff, and Padalis was there to put the puck home for the 1-0 lead.
Jamie Haddad tied the game for Yale five and half minutes later. Jackie Raines’ shot was blocked off the shin of a SLU defender, but Haddad was there to fire her eighth goal of the season past Carmen MacDonald from the right faceoff circle.
At the 16:14 mark of the first period, Saints captain Amanda Boulier fired a slap shot that dipped on its way to the net and beat Leonoff to give St. Lawrence a 2-1 lead
St. Lawrence opened a three-goal lead before the 10-minute mark of the second period on goals from Jackie Wand and Marks. Wand found a loose puck in the right face-off circle and snapped the puck past Leonoff in a goal almost identical to Haddad’s goal in the first. Marks scored off a feed from Boulier at the side of the net.
“I think our passing is the reason we’ve been winning lately, and Boulier made a great pass to me,” said Marks. “I felt the shot and was hoping she saw me.”
Despite the three-goal deficit, Yale kept the game interesting with two goals in 58 seconds around the midpoint of the second. Taylor Marchin beat MacDonald with a slap shot from the right circle at the 10:00-minute mark, then Raines found a loose puck during a scrum in front and fit it past MacDonald to narrow the Saints lead to just one.
Yale was unable to tie the game in the third, due in part to the play of MacDonald, who made 10 saves to preserve the Saints’ lead. St. Lawrence coach Chris Wells praised his goaltender’s effort in the third and in the whole game.
“I was actually shocked it was only 10; she was solid and a very calming influence for us,” said Wells. “She shook off the two goals in the second and she was able to come back and make those saves. She’s got a real good feel for the game.”
Despite the close nature of the game, the Saints were happy with the effort following the win.
“It was a good way for us to win; we haven’t had to win that way this year,” said Wells. “Every win you learn something, and we can learn from this one.”
“We were all pretty fired up after the win,” said Marks. “We knew Yale wasn’t easy to play against, but we bore down going into the third, and we knew we had to fight it out.”
Yale coach Joakim Flygh thought his team responded well after going down 4-1.
“I thought we had a strong pushback in the third and had some great chances to tie it up, but couldn’t capitalize. We like the way we are playing, we just need to get a little better on defense.”
