Third period notes

Goal SLU - Matt Raley.

Goal SLU - Drewiske

8 minutes to go...

Goal Colgate - Thomas Larkin on the PP

Now D. Keller goes to the box for obstruction/tripping.

Just an awesome PK for St. Lawrence. SLU back to full strength.

Gate goes on the PP... big PK here for the saints.

GoalSLU Nick Pitsikoulis off a rebound.

Caister is back in the game. Good news for Sainst fans.

-

Second period impressions

St. Lawrence has much to be pleased about. They outskated the Raiders that period. Although they didn't tie the game, they did get back within one. Tisi continues to play well.

The Saints need to keep up their aggression and pressure the Raiders if they want to tie it up or win. They also have to stay out of the box. They gave two penalties -- 5 for the game -- this period. Colgate has taken a lot of penalties (6 last night, 5 tonight). If SLU can stay out of the penalty, Colgate will pick up at least one this period and possibly open the door. Check McKenzie's goal vid below.

Second period notes

SLU goes on the PP again. Fourth of the period. Just like last night.

St. Lawrence is starting to play like they did to end last night's game. I expect a tying score inside of three minutes here in the second.

Saints fail to score on the PP. Bollig had a decent look but couldn't pull the trigger. 4:30 to play.

Power play SLU - Caister was railed into the boards. He got up slow. We'll see if he returns.

Penalty on SLU - Jeff Caister.

Goal SLU Who else but Mike McKenzie?

Penalty on Ethan Cox. SLU on the PP

St. Lawrence appears to have finally gotten rid of its penalty problems. Too bad they've already given up two PP goals.

Gate back to full strength. St. Lawrence is losing a lot of battles but slowly getting more zone time. Need to score the next goal.

SLU goes on the PP finally.

Goal Colgate - Price again... this one off a rebound.

And now Flanagan heads to the box for two minutes for a hold. Not sure about that one. Colgate goes to a 4-on-3.

Matching minors to both teams on a face off. 4-on-4 for two minutes.

Alex Evin needed only four saves that period. Tisi had 12. Shows you what those penalties do to a team.

-

First period impressions

St. Lawrence didn't match Colgate's intensity early on and took some uncharacteristic penalties. Two hooking calls and an interference. All of them in the neutral zone or COLGATE'S own zone. Not good at all.

The Saints need to find the fire and stop taking penalties. I suspect Marsh is telling them the same thing. The energy just wasn't there and Colgate finally ended it's long drought on the PP against SLU.

Saints aren't attacking enough and are sitting back, letting Colgate control the tempo and zone time. Part of that is the penalties and part of that is just playing carelessly.

A lot of hockey left, but Marsh has to be concerned with t he lack of urgency felt amongst the Saints. I guarantee you St. Lawrence does not want to come back tomorrow.

The did, after all, check out of their hotel this morning.

First period notes

The Saints are simply taking too many penalties... and close together. Tisi has made some incredible saves, but one finally got through on a shot from the blue line.

Goal Colgate - Jeremy Price and SLU picks up another penalty.

SLU goes back on the PK. Klancher to the box for hooking. Easy call after an unforced Gate turnover in their own end.

The Saints looked really good on the PK. Colgate, although they moved the puck well, only got one shot on Tisi.

Colgate goes on the PP as Raley heads to the box for interference.

The Saints are getting a ton of zone time, but aren't getting a lot of shots to the net.

Both teams are skating fairly even as we skate 7 minutes into the first period.

Bollig missed a good chance as he skated by a defender but a nice save by Evin.

A bad start to the power play and St. Lawrence fails to score on it. That wasn't a result of a good PK by Colgate. The Saints look a little out of sync. Tisi is playing well though.

Penalty just 36 seconds into the game against Colgate.

-

No real changes from last night. The guys spent the morning in Syracuse, where they're staying in a hotel, touring the Carmelo Anthony Basketball Center on the Syracuse University campus. Everyone was thoroughly impressed.

Here are your starters

Officials: Scott Whittlemore (R); Tim Kotyra (R); William Lyons (L); Matt Brolsma (L).

SLU:

Forwards: Mike McKenzie, Travis Vermeulen, Alex Curran

Defensemen: Jeff Ciaster, Derek Keller

Goalie: Kain Tisi

Colgate

Forwards: Matt Firman, Ethan Cox, Jason Williams

Defensemen: Wade Poplawski, Thomas Larkin

Goalie: Alex Evin

Here are the video highlights and interviews from St. Lawrence's 2-1 win over Colgate.

Mike McKenzie

Kain Tisi

Aaron Bogosian

GOALS

BOGO's

Third period notes

Penalty SLu with a minute left

Goal SLU Mike McKenzie

Colgate picks up another penalty.

Saints looked a little better on the power play but still aren't getting the chances they needed. 6 minutes to play.

Saints go on the PP with 9 minutes to play.

Saints kill the penalty. Nice job again. That is at least working in an otherwise weak effort tonight.

Penalty SLU Klancher again.

Saints are looking good about five minutes into the period. Controlling the puck and zone time. they killed the PP.

-

Second period impressions

Colgate woke up in the second period despite giving SLU there power plays. I would imagine Joe Marsh will give it to his guys in the locker room about scoring -- or at least playing effectively -- during the power play. It's was absolutely abysmal in the second period. They nearly gave up two shorties.

Tisi is playing excellent for St. Lawrence in net. Yes, he's given up one goal. But he hasn't had an easy save and St. Lawrence is not blocking any shots. This will be a pretty wild third period upcoming.

Colgate wins the second period. St. Lawrence had it in the first. If Colgate stays out of the box and St. Lawrence continues to sit back, the Raiders will take Game 1. SLU has to start blocking shots and controlling the puck when they get a power play.

Colgate will start the third period on the man-advantage. Hughes and Brian Day both were whistled for roughing after Vermeulen got a holding the stick penalty. A bit of confusion on the ice and in the press box as to what actually happened. Anyway, Colgate has a power play for a minute to start the third. There can be some good momentum gained for SLU with a stop.

Second period notes

They also whistled Vermeulen for holding a stick. Both players in the box.

SLU gets another PP on a wild scrum in front of Tisi. Brian Day heads to the box

Goal Colgate - Just after the penalty ended it was Austin Smith on a deflected shot that went right to his stick just the Tisi's left.

Klancher goes to the box, giving Colgate a PP.

SLU is not playing well with the man advantage. This time they didn't even get a shot off.

Colgate is starting to pick it up here a little bit, but ANOTHER penalty puts SLU back on the PP. Don Vaughan cannot be happy with three penalties this period and we're just over halfway.

The Saints have missed two opportunities this period to go up 2-0. This has the makings to come back and bite them, but Tisi is playing very well in net for SLU.

Another brutal PP for the Saints. They don't get a shot and they almost give up a shorty.

Saints go on the PP again. This time it's Thomas Larkin to the box.

Not a great PP for St. Lawrence. They only got a couple shots and spent most of the time in the neutral zone.

SLU goes on the PP just 1:20 into the second.

It looks as though the Colgate Raiders have a little bit of rust with not playing for a couple weeks. St. Lawrence is just controlling everything.

-

First period impressions

St. Lawrence was clearly the better team in the first period. However, it's defense has been almost too offensive minded. They gave up at least three odd-man rushes and relied on Tisi to make the saves (which he did). This could easily be 2-1 if it weren't for Tisi.

Colgate has to do a better job on the PP. They have gone at least a dozen straight against SLU without a power-play goal.

St. Lawrence needs to keep the aggression going.

First period notes

GOAL SLU: Aaron Bogosian. Awesome move, unassisted. 17:07

Tisi makes a couple nice saves and Colgates PP does not look good. They're making a lot of unforced errors. SLU kills a second penalty.

Saints go on PK. Pitsikoulis with a slashing penalty.

Armstrong missed a good chance on a rebound. Still scoreless as Evin covers up.

Back to full strength and Tisi makes an unbelievable save on a 2-on-1.

Tisi makes a couple nice saves on SLU's penalty kill and STUPID penalty taken by Wade Poplawski makes it 4-on-4 for 1:18 then a SLU power play.

Penalty SLU - Curran.

Nearly the 7 minute mark and no one is getting much of anything. Colgate has taken about three shots on Tisi, while SLU put about five on net.

Starr Rink has a fair amount of people on hand, but no one is making noise. You'd think this was practice, not a game.

Tisi hasn't has to do much. St. Lawrence getting a lot of zone time right now. A lot less intensity in this rink than Appleton last weekend.

A back and forth game here early. Only one shot on goal through the opening two minutes. St. Lawrence appears to have an early edge in puck possession.

The all-time series is knotted at 15-15-2. St. Lawrence has won the last four meetings. It should be a good series. Just about underway.

-

It is collllld inside Starr Rink as Colgate and St. Lawrence are both starting to slowly loosen up and prepare for the 7 p.m. start.

I have the video camera tonight and will provide what video I can between periods.

Officials: Scott Whittlemore (R); Tim Kotrya (R); Wiliam Lyons (L); Matt Broisma (L)

Starters

SLU:

Forwards: Mike McKenzie, Travis Vermeulen, Alex Curran

Defensemen: Jeff Caister, Derek Keller

Goalie: Kain Tisi

Colgate:

Forwards: Francois Brisebois, David McIntyre, Austin Smith

Defensmen: Jeremy Price, Kevin McNamara

Goalie: Alex Evin.

CANTON — St. Lawrence University men's hockey team experienced a quick turnaround from an unforgettable three-game series against Clarkson this week.

The Saints advanced to the ECAC Hockey quarterfinals against Colgate this weekend after playing two overtime games and winning the decisive third game in the final 90 seconds.

"It was such an intense series," coach Joe Marsh said. "That alone prepares you for what you need to have. It's worth probably a month of practice."

Forced to play through Sunday, the Saints have a shortened week of practice before traveling to Colgate to start their next series.

"We're trying to recover from the weekend," St. Lawrence forward Mike McKenzie said. "Usually you get a Sunday off throughout the year. It tires you out a little more, but we're all ready to go."

The Raiders, however, earned a bye and haven't played since Feb. 27. Marsh said that doesn't necessarily matter as long as the Saints continue to practice well.

"You try and establish some sort of pattern or agenda to stick to," he said. "It's about getting hot and sustaining it."

Practice this week was short — little more than an hour each day — and the team worked on minor execution and fundamentals more than any changes in game plan.

"We want to emphasize the quality, not the quantity of the practice," Marsh said. "We had a good skate on Monday to kind of flush out the weekend a little bit. We're not going to affect any monumental changes in strategy."

Nor should St. Lawrence. What it's done against Colgate in the last two years seems to work. The Saints beat Colgate twice last season. This year, it was more of the same. St. Lawrence won 4-0 at Appleton Arena and finished Colgate in overtime, 3-2, at Starr Rink.

"We definitely have confidence going into Colgate's place," McKenzie said. "We've played pretty well at Starr the last couple years."

The last time St. Lawrence faced Colgate in the playoffs was in 2008. The Saints won Game 1 but lost the next two at Colgate to end the season. Marsh doesn't believe Colgate is that different a team from two years ago and sweeping the Raiders in consecutive regular seasons means nothing.

"You can't say 'Hey, we beat them twice,'" Marsh said. "It's hard to beat a team four times (in a season). I think our guys know it's a whole new ballgame."

That doesn't mean the confidence is lacking. Travis Vermeulen, a finalist for the ECAC Defensive Forward of the Year award, said winning will be a matter of consistency.

"We just have to maintain the things we did right (against Clarkson)," he said. "We understand that Colgate's a pretty good team and they finished the season on a pretty good note."

The Raiders overtook St. Lawrence in the final four games of the season to earn fourth place in the conference and a first-round bye. The Saints aren't worried about that now, having won three of their last four games heading into the Colgate series.

"We're confident but not overconfident," McKenzie said. "We enjoyed (the Clarkson win) for a day or so. It's in the back of our heads still, but we gotta move on from that and keep things rolling."

AWARDS SEASON

The ECAC award nominations continue to trickle in as the conference championship approaches.

So far, three awards have been announced and St. Lawrence has a man in the running in all of them.

Vermeulen was selected as a finalist for the Defensive Forward of the Year after setting career highs in goals (17), assists (23) and points (40) this season. Marsh has called him "the best defensive forward I've ever coached."

"I think that's a strong part of my game," Vermeulen said. "It's nice to get recognition for that."

Derek Keller is in the hunt for Best Defensive Defenseman, and coach Joe Marsh is up for Coach of the Year.

The latest in the "Get to Know a Saint" series in St. Lawrence University senior Pat Kelliher. Enjoy.

BLOG ARCHIVE