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Carey scores 2, Saints solid in 5-3 win over RPI

Posted 2/18/11

Freshman wing Greg Carey scored twice and St. Lawrence scored five goals on one of the nation's leading collegiate goaltenders as the Saints upset 14th-ranked Rensselaer 5-3 in a ECAC Hockey game at …

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Carey scores 2, Saints solid in 5-3 win over RPI

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Freshman wing Greg Carey scored twice and St. Lawrence scored five goals on one of the nation's leading collegiate goaltenders as the Saints upset 14th-ranked Rensselaer 5-3 in a ECAC Hockey game at SLU's Appleton Arena Friday night.

Carey, who had two goals and an assist in a 5-3 loss at RPI earlier in the season, scored on a power play to give the Saints a 2-1 lead after one period and netted his second of the night in the second period to spark the Saint offense which scored four even strength goals in the game. The Saint penalty kill surrendered a goal on RPI's first chance of the night, but was perfect after that including 1:05 of five-on-three in the second period.

The Saints improve to 10-16-6 on the season and 6-12-1 in league play while RPI is now 18-9-4 overall and 10-8-1 in the league.

St. Lawrence chased RPI goalie Allen York, who came into the game with a 1.89 goals against average and a .932 save percentage with five goals in a span of just over 45 minutes en route their third win of the year over a team ranked in the top 20 nationally. RPI went into Friday's game ranked 14th, but lost its third straight.

"We needed that one," said Saint coach Joe Marsh. "We have had several good efforts this season which have not paid off in wins and tonight we got the "W" to go with the effort. It was a good night across the board, and it all started when we came out with a lot of jump and got that early goal."

St. Lawrence came out flying and cashed in just 1:24 into the game as graduate student Sean Flanagan controlled a rebound of a shot by defenseman Jordan Dewey and snapped the puck back past York for his fourth goal of the season and a 1-0 lead. The Saints improved to 9-1-1 on the season when scoring the game's first goal and are now 5-0-2 in games that they led after the first period

The Engineers came back to tie on a power play rebound at 4:48 as Josh Rabbani scored his sixth of the season when he put the rebound of Nick Bailen's shot past diving Saint goalie Robby Moss, but the Saints came right back with a power play goal of their own at 6:35 as freshman Greg Carey scored his 16th of the year right off a faceoff win by Aaron Bogosian just four seconds into the man advantage to make it a 2-1 game.

The Saint penalty kill, ranked fifth in the nation, killed off four consecutive RPI power plays later in the first period including 1:05 of a five-on-three to help the Saints maintain their lead.

Carey scored his second of the night and fourth of the season in two games against RPI when he took the puck from defenseman Justin Baker and snapped a wrist shot just inside the far post 5:27 into the second period and the Saints made it a 4-1 game at 13:17 when senior captain Jared Keller scored his second, putting a rebound of a shot by Nick Pitsikoulis over York as the RPI goalie scrambled to get back after making the first save.

RPI cut the lead to 4-2 4:51 into the third period when defenseman Jeff Foss took a shot along the ice through traffic which deflected off a Saint defender and in, but the Saints had an immediate answer as Dewey took a pass from Keller and scored his second of the season less than a minute later to make it a 5-2 game. CJ Lee scored at 15:39 to cut the Saint lead to 5-3, but the Engineers could get no closer despite pulling backup goalie Bryce Merriam for an extra attacker several times in the final 3:32 of the game.

"Dewey's goal was a big one for us because it swung the momentum right back in our favor," said Marsh. "I also thought we handled their extra attacker situation pretty well in the final minutes of the game and made some good defensive plays in front of Robby Moss."

Moss finished with 21 saves in his sixth straight start while York had 24 and Merriam seven as the Saints outshot the Engineers 36-24.