SCHENECTADY, NY -- The 20th-ranked Union College Dutchman men's hockey team (15-7-6) relied on their veteran first line to complete a come from behind 4-2 win in a conference game against the St. Lawrence Saints (14-10-5) on Saturday night at Messa rink. The three skaters, senior
Mario Valery-Trabucco, senior
Jason Walters and junior
Adam Presizniuk each tallied two points on the evening to give Union its second consecutive win and a series sweep of both North Country teams. Union moves into a three-way tie for first place in ECACH play with a 9-3-4, while St. Lawrence goes to 8-5-3.
Union began its comeback when it registered an important early third period goal at the 3:09 mark to tie the game at 2 a piece. Trabucco (one goal, one assist) picked up his 16th goal of the season and was assisted by both Walters (2 assists), earning his 19th helper on the year, and Presizniuk (one goal, one assist) and his 18th assist. Trabucco made the most of his point blank opportunity and buried the shot past St. Lawrence netminder Kain Tisi's blocker.
Freshman
Wayne Simpson (five goals to date) scored the game-winner shortly after at 7:11 on a beautiful deflection off a shot from senior
Mike Schreiber (17 assists on the season).
Kelly Zajac picked up the second assist on the play, registering his 10th assist of the year.
Union thwarted the Saint's comeback attempt as the Dutchman were able to kill a power play opportunity at 15:29 of the third. This defensive effort, combined with a late goal from junior
Brock Matheson (his fourth of the season) at 18:07, assisted by junior
Andrew Buote (his fourth of the year), sealed the victory for the Union.
The first goal of the game came in the second period, as St. Lawrence's Aaron Bogosian tallied his fifth goal of the season. The play developed for St Lawrence after a Union missed shot, as a streaking Bogosian received the puck and slapped one by freshman goalie
Keith Kinkaid.
Union responded with a goal of its own at the 9:52 mark of the period, following some crisp passing that led to Presizniuk's 10th goal of the season. With assists from Walters (18th assist of the season) and Trabucco (19th assist of the season), Union began to skate with a renewed sense of urgency.
At 18:02 in the second period, Union's third power play of the evening experienced difficulty controlling the puck in their offensive zone. This trouble led to a St. Lawrence fifth short-handed goal of the season with 6.3 seconds left in the period. Skating in alone, Travis Vermeulem notched his 12th goal of season, assisted by Alex Curran (11th assist on the year).
The first period saw no goals for either squad. Kinkaid made 12 saves for Union which was outshot 12-5 in the period. However, the two best chances for either side developed in the final seconds of the period as Trabucco was denied on a rebound in front of the net. Seconds later, Presizniuk missed wide on a turnaround wrister.
Kinkaid improved his record to 9-4-3 as a starter, as he stopped 26 shots on the night. Tisi made 20 stops on the evening.
Union resumes play on Friday, Feb. 12 at Dartmouth at 7 p.m.
