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Sweetman, Sullivan lead Saints men's hockey past Union 6-3

Posted 11/7/15

Junior defenseman Eric Sweetman scored one goal and set up two others and sophomore wing Joe Sullivan had his first career two-goal game as 15th ranked St. Lawrence University opened ECAC Hockey …

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Sweetman, Sullivan lead Saints men's hockey past Union 6-3

Posted

Junior defenseman Eric Sweetman scored one goal and set up two others and sophomore wing Joe Sullivan had his first career two-goal game as 15th ranked St. Lawrence University opened ECAC Hockey league play with a 6-3 win over Union College at Appleton Arena Friday night.

St. Lawrence, 6-2-1 overall 1-0-0 in league play never trailed as it ran its unbeaten streak to four games, but Union, 2-4-3, 0-3-0 tied it three times before the SaintsEric Sweetman had a big night in the Saint win over Union finally put the game away with a four-goal second period. SLU won for the 21st time in 31 games between the teams in Canton and won on home ice for the fourth straight year.

The Saints turned in a dominating second period, scoring four times and outshooting Union 17-7 to take control of the game.

"With the puck we were really good tonight, but without the puck we weren't great," said Saint coach Greg Carvel. "I thought Eric Sweetman was outstanding. His poise with the puck and his play without it…he showed how good he is and he was just outstanding."

Defenseman Gavin Bayreuther opened the scoring for the Saints when he fired a power play shot from the top of the right faceoff circle which beat Union starter Jake Kupsky for Bayreuther's third of the year 11:55 into the game. Union came right back to tie it under a minute later when junior Mike Vecchione picked up a puck off a blocked shot and snapped it past Saint goalie Kyle Hayton at 12:45. Sweetman then took a pass from Christian Horn, made a move to get clear at the blue line and wired a shot past Kupsky at 13:30, but Union came back one more time in the first as Ryan Scarfo got to a loose puck before Hayton could cover it and scored his fifth of the year at 18:42.

Senior Alex Hagen put the Saints up 3-2 1:38 into the second period when he snapped a wrist shot to the upper corner, but Vecchione scored his second of the game on a power play at 11:38 as he was alone at the side of the net and one-timed a pass inside the far post.

Sullivan then scored the eventual game winner was he worked through traffic at the top of the Union crease and tucked his first of the season past Kupsky from Sweetman and Mike Marnell at 12:18 and Sullivan scored his second of the night as he walked around the defense and went in alone at 15:16. Drew Smolcynski completed the scoring as he walked into the slot and fired a shot to the upper corner, ending Kupsky's night at 16:19 of the second.

Alex Sakellaropoulos came on and shut the Saint offense down the rest of the way, making 13 saves in 23:41, but Hayton was just as solid at the other end of the ice, making 10 of his 23 saves in the third period for his sixth win of the season. Kupsky had 24 saves in 35:54 as the Saints had a 43-26 advantage in shots on goal.

"We were able to get a lot of pucks to the net and our special teams were good. To me we played hard, although we didn't play quite smart enough tonight. We need to be better, but that was a pretty good game. Union makes you play fast, which we don't mind doing, and they were opportunistic and scored when they had chances."