Scoring Summary:
 
Period 1
SLU 0  UNH 1  18:54   UNH  Royal   (Chebator, McGrath)
 
Period 2
SLU 0  UNH 2   1:33   UNH  Poole   (Donovan, Klym)
SLU 1  UNH 2   8:17   SLU  Verbeek (Kapeller, Skene)
SLU 2  UNH 2   8:56   SLU  Meany   (Beattie, Carvel) PP
SLU 3  UNH 2  15:13   SLU  Murphy  (Meany, Allain)
 
Period 3
SLU 3  UNH 3  14:34   UNH  Malone  (Cooper, Donovan) PP
 
Overtime
SLU 4  UNH 3   3:16   SLU  Carvel  (Albert)
 
Saves
  UNH (Abel)         4 +  8 +  7 +  2 = 21
  SLU (Spagnoletti)  9 + 11 + 13 +  4 = 37
 
    What a way to be reminded about how exciting college hockey
 can be!  St. Lawrence and New Hampshire put on a surprisingly
good show in SLU's season opener - with the home fans going home
happy after Canton native (and SLU captain) Greg Carvel netted
the game winner in overtime.
 
    Both teams skated relatively evenly the first period except
for several Saint defensive lapses which left a UNH skater alone
with the puck right in front of goalie Spagnolett on three
separate occasions. Spags guessed correctly each time and came
up with three sterling saves.  His luck didn't quite make it through
the period however as UNH scored just after a power play ended
on a melee in front of the net.  It was tough to see how the puck
went in and at least one observer claimed that Spagnoletti put it
in himself trying to seep it away to the side.
 
     UNH scored again early in the second period on a shot from
Nick Poole which Spagnoletti caught 90% of, but the puck flipped
out of his glove and into the net. SLU got their maiden goal just
before the midway point in the period with Gerard Verbeek putting
in a nice pass from Dan Skene.  Spencer Meany scored shortly
thereafter on a power play showing great patience to fake a shot,
pull the puck back, wait for the defender to commit, and then
flick it into the goal.
 
    A key sequence in the game came with about six minutes left
in the second period and UNH on a power play.  Spagnoletti's
goalie stick was broken during action in front of the net.
 Play continued with Carvel loaning the SLU goalie his stick,
kicking the puck out of the zone, and going to the bench for a
new stick, but the goalie was still forced to use the little
stick until the Saints could get a whistle.  Unfortunately, they
were killing a penalty so several "icings" brought no whistles.
Finally, the penalty expired and while the fans were yelling
"Ice the puck!", freshman Burke Murphy bulled his way down the middle
 and slipped the puck past the UNH goalie moments before going into
 the goal himself. A very important goal for SLU's momentum.
 
    UNH tied the game with just over 5 minutes left in the third,
after solidly controlling the puck throughout an impressive power
play. SLU got a power play of their own for the last two minutes
but could not capitalize.  Play got very rough during the overtime.
SLU's Kapeller put a huge check on UNH's McGrath which had him
essentially out on his feet. SLU's Skene then took a shot to the
head which required four stiches after the game to re-attach the
bottom of his earlob. A good example of the effectiveness of having
two referees occured when each ref saw different infractions which
resulted in matching penalties.  I think that either acting alone
would have seen just one of the  infractions and generated an
overtime power play unfairly.
 
     The game winner came very quickly when SLU's Lee Albert
broke up what appeared to be a clearing rush just before the
puck crossed the blue line and found Carvel all alone behind the
defenders.  Carvel took the pass and calmly waited for UNH's
Abel to leave an opening before firing it in - then turned
immediately to where his parents always sit as he shot his fist into
the air.
 
   All-in-all UNH played a strong game and made very few mistakes.
SLU survived their early first period mistakes and the result was
a pretty good and evenly played hockey game.  Only two freshmen played
for the Saints.  Murphy got a very important goal and Jeff Knugle
played a regular defensive shift paired with Mike McCourt.
The first line was Carvel, Albert, and sophomore Cade Blackburn.
It's tough to tell which of the other lines were second, third, and
fourth - they all are pretty equal and mixed some in the early stages.
 Probably whichever is the second line (Meany, Allain, Murphy?)
is slightly weaker than a typical second line, while the fourth
line (McGeough, Giacin,Massoud?) is relatively strong.  That
leaves Verbeek/Skene/Kapeller as the "third?" line, Beattie/Roderick
as the first team defenders, with Terwilliger/Celatano as
the other defensive pairing.
 
Robin Lock
St. Lawrence University
rlock@stlawu