FINAL SCORE: No. 10 Vermont 2, St. Lawrence 1BURLINGTON, Vt. – Brody Hoffman stopped 22 of the 23 shots he faced on Friday night, leading 10
th-ranked Vermont past St. Lawrence 2-1 in a tight non-conference game at Gutterson Fieldhouse to begin a home-and-home series between the longtime rivals.
The Catamounts earned their fifth consecutive win and improved to 12-3-1 (7-3-1 HEA), including a perfect 6-0-0 mark at home. The Saints dropped their fourth straight contest against UVM and fell to 8-7-1 (4-3-0 ECAC).
"I think the effort was there, we just made a lot of careless mistakes tonight that got us in trouble at times," said head coach
Kevin Sneddon. "Mr. Hoffman saved our game for us, St. Lawrence is a great team. They probably played better than we did but we found a way to win a game where we weren't at our best and that's a sign of a good team."
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CatamounTV HighlightsPhoto Gallery Hoffman set the tone early by stopping an open one-timer from the slot in the first three minutes as he moved across his crease quickly from right to left.
Mike Stenerson opened the scoring at the 8:18 mark as he collected a loose puck at the top of the crease off a
Nick Luukko point shot. Stenerson spun a shot around the pads of Tyler Parks at the left doorstep as
Mario Puskarich picked up the second assist on the play.
The Catamounts doubled the lead less than two and a half minutes later on another Luukko shot from the blueline. The senior wristed the puck on target from the left point, and
Anthony Petruzzelli deflected it along the ice inside the left post. UVM pushed its advantage to 2-0, scoring on two of its first three shots on goal of the game.
Vermont took the first penalty of the game late in the first and St. Lawrence capitalized to cut the lead in half. From the left faceoff circle, Patrick Doherty picked out Brian Ward at the back door and his low one-timer beat Hoffman with 90 seconds remaining in the period.
Doherty nearly tied the game on the first shift of the second period but hit the right post with a wrister after dragging the puck into the slot. The Cats had three power plays in the frame but couldn't grab an insurance goal. Vermont directed three shots on goal during the first man advantage as Parks kept the deficit at one for the Saints.
In the third period, Hoffman made another key save with under four minutes left in regulation. The junior robbed Joe Sullivan on a one-timer from the low slot after a centering pass from behind the net, and yielded no rebound to keep UVM in front.
Shortly after,
Brady Shaw came inches away from a third Vermont tally but hit the post on a partial breakaway. St. Lawrence pulled Parks for an extra skater with 1:17 left, but a Saint penalty with 25 seconds on the clock sealed the win.
UVM held a slim 24-23 edge in shots but was 0-for-5 on the power play. Parks stopped 22 shots in a losing effort for SLU.
The Catamounts and Saints close their home-and-home series on Saturday (Dec. 13) at 7 p.m. at Appleton Arena in Canton, New York. Pre-game radio coverage begins at 6:30 p.m. on WVMT 620-AM and
SportsJuice.com with
Alastair Ingram on the call, and a free live video stream is available via
SaintsAthletics.com.
