The fourth-seeded St. Lawrence University women's hockey team landed the first punch in their ECAC Hockey quarterfinal on Friday afternoon, edging No. 5 seed Quinnipiac 3-1 in Game 1 at Appleton Arena.

Justine Reyes and Kayla Nielsen each had a goal and an assist for the Saints, while Skylar Podvey added a goal and Rachael Smith had a pair of assists.

Netminder Grace Harrison stopped 12 of 13 shots en route to the victory.

The Saints got off to a dream start just 44 seconds into Friday's contest, as Podvey, a first-year blueliner, wired a one-timer past Quinnipiac starter Abbie Ives. Hannah Miller and Kennedy Marchment both had assists.

St. Lawrence doubled its lead with just over five minutes left in the first period when Reyes batted her own rebound past a sprawling Ives.

Neither team found the net in a tense second period which saw the Saints outshoot Quinnipiac 8-2.

The Bobcats came out hard in the third period and were rewarded with a goal six minutes into the final frame when Melissa Samoskevich beat Harrison with a wrist shot from the low slot.

Nielsen restored St. Lawrence's two-goal lead seven minutes later when she rifled a shot past Ives off a slick, spinning feed from Smith.

"That was a nice win today," said head coach Chris Wells '92. "To be able to score on the first shift really settled things in for us. We worked hard and won a lot of pucks in the first two periods. We also had plenty of good bounces. Quinnipiac came out hard in the third and took over the game until we were able to get our final goal."

The Saints outshot Quinnipiac 24-13; both teams were 0-for-1 on the power play.

The Saints, now 19-10-4, will look to close out the best-of-three series on Saturday afternoon, when they will host the Bobcats (16-16-3) in Game 2 of the series.

"We're so familiar with how they play, (and) they're familiar with how we play," said Wells. "That's allowed coaches to get their players prepared. It's going to come down to who can make more plays."

Puck drop is slated for 2 p.m. at Appleton Arena.

Carlos Verde is pursuing his B.A. in journalism at Carleton University in Ottawa and is serving as a volunteer intern for the St. Lawrence University women's hockey team.

EARM Sports Logo