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Gilmour's late-game heroics powers No. 16 Saints men's hockey to 4-3 upset win

Posted 1/29/17

With 17.8 seconds remaining in regulation Alex Gilmour scored his second goal of the night and third of the weekend to power the No. 16 Saints men's hockey team to a 4-3 come-from-behind upset win …

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Gilmour's late-game heroics powers No. 16 Saints men's hockey to 4-3 upset win

Posted

With 17.8 seconds remaining in regulation Alex Gilmour scored his second goal of the night and third of the weekend to power the No. 16 Saints men's hockey team to a 4-3 come-from-behind upset win over fifth-ranked Union in front of an electric crowd at Appleton Arena.

Gilmour and the Saints erased an early one-goal deficit and then dug themselves out of a two-goal hole late in the second period in a gritty and resilient effort on Saturday night. For the second game in a row Kyle Hayton was clutch for St. Lawrence down the stretch, making 18 of his 38 saves in the third period. He stopped a number of chances in close and he and the Saints kept national scoring leader Mike Vecchione and Spencer Foo completely off the scoresheet.

St. Lawrence is now in sole possession of first place in the ECAC Hockey standings with 25 points, while Union drops to second with 23 points.

Union took a 1-0 lead late in the first period on a goal by Ryan Walker, but the Saints came out firing to start the second and needed less than two minutes to net the equalizer.

Junior defenseman Nolan Gluchowski tied the game at 1-1 on a breakaway with a shot that beat Union's Alex Sakellaropoulous low blocker. Michael Ederer hit Gluchowski as he split the Union defense in the neutral zone, with Ben Finkelstein earning his first of two assists on the night on the play.

Four minutes later, Union scored two goals in 43 seconds – both on odd-man rushes – to take a 3-1 lead. But a breakout play by two senior defensemen at the 8:51 mark caught the Dutchmen in transition and pulled the Saints back within one.

Eric Sweetman hit classmate Gavin Bayreuther with a pass as he cut through the neutral zone and Bayreuther snapped off a wrister from the right faceoff dot that beat Sakellaropoulos high inside the far post. The Caanan, New Hampshire native had missed the previous seven games for St. Lawrence with an injury but took back the momentum for the Saints with his seventh goal of the season.

At the 16:26 mark of the middle frame, Gilmour backhanded the rebound from a shot by senior Drew Smolcynski behind the Union netminder to tie the game at 3-3.

The Saints were outshot 18-10 in the final period, but their 10th shot was the only one that mattered. After Gilmour won a draw in the Union zone, Ryan Lough collected the puck along the half wall and passed to Finkelstein on the right point, who then put a shot into traffic where Gilmour tipped it over Sakellaropoulos's left shoulder to bring 2500 fans to their feet and give the Scarlet and Brown the 4-3 win.

It is the second multi-goal game of his career for the Uxbridge, Ontario native - who now has six goals in nine games for the Saints.

St. Lawrence, now 15-7-6 one the season with an 11-2-3 mark in ECAC Hockey contests, will travel to Clarkson next Saturday, Feb. 4 for the second game of this season's Route 11 Rivalry at Cheel Arena.