CANTON, NY – It had been six years since Union had defeated St. Lawrence at Appleton Arena, but that changed Friday night as the Dutchmen knocked off the Saints, 3-1, in the their home barn to stay perfect in league play.
Union has now won five straight to improve to 5-5-0 on the season and 3-0-0 to in ECAC Hockey competition. St. Lawrence falls to 1-8-0 on the year, and starts their conference schedule with a 0-1-0 mark.
St. Lawrence's goaltender Arthur Brey had his work cut out for him in the contest, as the junior turned in a season-high 38 saves. Brey and Union counterpart Darion Hanson were both perfect in the first period as neither side could find the back of the net in the opening 20.
The Dutchmen finally got the puck past Brey, netting a rebound goal at the 14:33 mark of the second period.
Ryan Scarfo received a great breakout feed from
J.C. Brassard to head up the ice. The senior forward then took a shot on net from the wing. Cole Maier crashed the far side of the net and picked up the rebound for his second goal in as many games.
Less than three minutes later, Union doubled its lead with a power-play goal. Working the puck around in the zone, Anthony Rinaldi fired a shot that was redirected by Sebastian Vidmar into the back of the SLU net.
In the third period, Union added a third and final goal off a two-on-one break from Brendan Taylor and Zachary Emelifeonwu. The play started in the Union D-zone, and Liam Morgan won a battle along the half boards to chip the puck up to Taylor for the odd-man rush. Taylor dished a saucer pass over a sprawled-out Saints' defenseman, hitting Emileifeonwu's tape in stride, and the sophomore forward finished the play for his second goal of the season.
Unfortunately, Union's bid for a shutout was ended in the final minutes of play when St. Lawrence scored their lone goal of the game on a four-on-three power play.
Hanson turned in 17 saves for his, and the team's, fifth-consecutive win. Union ended up out-shooting St. Lawrence 41-18 in the contest and both teams went 1-for-6 on the power play.
Union finishes off the weekend with a game at Clarkson tomorrow night at 7 p.m. (ET).
