CANTON, N.Y. - St. Lawrence University (SLU) scored the final five goals of the game, including the only four in the fourth quarter, and the No. 19 Saints defeated No. 18 Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) 11-6 in the regular season finale for both teams.
Despite the loss, the Engineers (11-4; 5-3 Liberty League) are the No. 3 seed in the Liberty League Playoffs and hosts No. 6 Clarkson University (8-7; 3-5) in a first round matchup on Saturday in Troy (2pm). SLU (12-3; 5-3) is the No. 5 seed and plays at No. 4 Ithaca College (8-5; 5-3) on Saturday. The Nos. 3-5 seeds were determined by a series of tiebreakers. No. 1 RIT (16-1; 8-0) and No. 12 Union (12-2; 7-1) are the top two seeds and will host semifinals games on May 1.
On Wednesday at St. Lawrence, Rensselaer jumped out to a 2-0 lead on goals from
Owen Putman - only 18 seconds into the contest - and
Lucas Bastarache, but the Saints got the next three, including two from Mike Donnelly, to take the lead. Putman, a junior, scored again with 1:37 left in the first quarter and the frame ended in a 3-3 tie.Â
SLU scored the first two goals of the second quarter before Rensselaer's
Cooper Urban scored with 2:32 left in the second quarter, but Donnelly answered 36 seconds later.Â
Two goals from Putman in the third quarter, including a man-up feed from
JT Kelly, knotted the score at 6-6, but the Engineers were held scoreless from that point on. St. Lawrence, meanwhile, tallied with 6:31 to play in the third quarter (David Jennings) before scoring four times in the fourth. Four different Saints scored, including Donnelly and Mike Mahoney, who notched his lone goal with 28 seconds left in the game.
Putman finished with four goals and Kelly had two assists.
Keaton Ackermann and
Garrett Volley both had three ground balls and
Brian Doughty stopped 11 shots.
Donnelly scored four times and Alex Terry made nine saves for the Saints, who held a 46-27 advantage in shots and a 31-17 edge in ground balls.
SLU's game with Ithaca is a rematch from March 27 when the Bombers defeated the Saints 12-11 in double overtime in Ithaca. RPI and Clarkson played on Saturday in Troy with the Engineers prevailing 20-8.
