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Saints drop men's hockey season opener 5-2 at RIT

Posted 10/11/14

St. Lawrence University's hockey team gave the Rochester Institute of Technology a few too many housewarming presents in the first NCAA men's game in RIT's new Polisseni Center as Saint turnovers …

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Saints drop men's hockey season opener 5-2 at RIT

Posted

St. Lawrence University's hockey team gave the Rochester Institute of Technology a few too many housewarming presents in the first NCAA men's game in RIT's new Polisseni Center as Saint turnovers contributed to three Tiger goals in a 5-2 RIT win.

Saint freshman goaltender Kyle Hayton turned in a solid performance in his first collegiate start and rookies accounted for four of six points amassed by the Saints, but SLU struggled at times to sustain offense in the RIT end and offensive end mistakes enabled RPI to build a 4-1 lead through two periods en route the win in the season opener for both teams.

Hayton, who made some big saves early, couldn't do a thing about the first goal of the game as RIT put together a pretty series of passes and defenseman Alex Kuqali converted at the post at 11:02 on a power play to give the Tigers the first goal in their new building. It came on a back door play just eight seconds into the power play. RIT made it a 2-0 game at 16:30 when Brad Shumway found Caleb Cameron with a long lead pass and Cameron got a step on the Saint defense, beating Hayton up high.

The Saints, who had a Pat Doherty shot clang off the pipe just after the second RIT goal, got back into it with 18 seconds to go in the first period when freshman Mike Marnell fired a rocket just under the crossbar on a Saint power play with Gavin Bayreuther and Nolan Gluchowski assisting to make it 2-1 after one period.

A pair of Saint turnovers in the defensive zone proved costly in the second period as RIT pushed its lead to 4-1. Defenseman Kuqali, who scored two goals a year ago, matched that total when he picked up the puck deep in the Saint zone after a turnover and threw it in front from behind the goal line. The puck glanced off the stick of a Saint defender and deflected past Hayton just 28 seconds into the period to make it 3-1. Senior Brad McGowan scored the second Tiger goal of the period after the Saints intercepted a pass from behind their own net, but turned it over near the top of the circle and McGowan cashed in at 14:23.

RIT made it a 5-1 game 6:11 into the third as Josh Mitchell broke into the Saint zone and snapped a hard shot which Hayton kicked out, but the rebound went right to McGowan who scored his second of the night.

The Saints got that one back on a power play at 7:36 as Drew Smolcynski took a pass from Gluchowski in the faceoff circle and hit a wide open net with Marnell also assisting.

SLU went two for seven on the power play and killed three of four RIT man-advantages in the game. Hayton finished with 23 saves for the Saints while Jordan Ruby had 21 for the Tigers.