Saints upset suspension-ravaged Dutchmen

Box Score

by Ryan Fay

Matt Graham scored his first collegiate goal at 8:40 of the third period to break a tie and lift St. Lawrence to a 2-1 win over fourth-ranked Union Friday at Appleton Arena.

The result spoiled an otherwise memorable night for Union senior forward Daniel Carr, who tied the game at 1-1 just over a minute into the third to become the program's Division I era career points leader with 132. He surpassed Adam Presizniuk, who had 131 career points from 2007-2011.

Coupled with Quinnipiac's 8-1 thrashing of Dartmouth, the Dutchmen (10-3-0 ECAC Hockey, 16-6-3 overall) fell out of first place in ECACH and trail the Bobcats by one point.

Union played without head coach Rick Bennett, senior defenseman Mat Bodie, junior forward Daniel Ciampini and freshman forward Eli Lichtenwald. All four were serving suspensions stemming from the postgame melee that followed last Saturday's Mayor's Cup against RPI.

Ciampini and Lichtenwald can return tonight at 15th-ranked Clarkson, but Bennett still has three games left on his suspension and Bodie still has one.

Assistant coach Joe Dumais, who is serving as acting head coach in Bennett's absence, didn't use the suspensions as excuses for the loss.

"St. Lawrence came out hard tonight and won the one-on-one battles," said Dumais. "There were no excuses for us. Even though we were missing a few guys, we still had a full lineup. We just need to get back to playing Union hockey."

The Saints (3-7-3, 9-13-3), who snapped a nine-game winless streak, took a 1-0 lead in the second on a Drew Smolcynski goal.

Union, which was outshot 35-22, received 33 saves from Niskayuna native Colin Stevens.

Follow @UnionHockeyBlog