McKenzie Rallies Saints To Series Winner Vs CU

CANTON - Senior wing Mike McKenzie set up the game-tying goal with just over five minutes to play and scored the game winner with 1:23 left as St. Lawrence edged arch-rival Clarkson 3-2, winning their ECAC playoff series 3-2 at Appleton Arena Sunday night.

St. Lawrence, now 17-14-7, advances to play at fourth-seeded Colgate in the ECAC quarterfinals while Clarkson finishes its season 9-24-4.

The win was just the second in a game three for the Saints since the ECAC playoffs went to a best of three format. SLU was 1-6-0 in game three situations prior to Sunday night. The Saints won the playoff series opener 3-2 in overtime on Friday night, but Clarkson forced Sunday's game with a 4-3 overtime win on Saturday.

Trailing 2-1, but putting heavy pressure on in the Clarkson end, the Saints were frustrated by Clarkson goalie Paul Karpowich and a ton of blocked shots by the Golden Knight defenders in the third period. The Saints outshot Clarkson 18-2 in the period, but couldn't find the net until late. McKenzie made a great pass across the front of the crease to sophomore wing Rick Carden, who one-timed his third goal of the year past Karpowich at 14:47 to tie the game at 2-2. Senior center Travis Vermeulen then worked the puck behind the net and set up McKenzie for the game winner as the senior wing put his 12th of the year past Karpowich from right in front to give the Saints the lead at 18:37.

Clarkson pulled Karpowich for an extra attacker with 1:17 to play and then had a power play opportunity with 32 seconds left, but could not get a shot through the Saint defense to tie it up.

The Saints took a 1-0 lead in the first period, scoring on their first power play chance in the game. Jeff Caister scored the goal, his sixth of the year, as he took a pass across the top of the offensive zone from Kyle Flanagan and sent a shot toward net which snuck just inside the far post at 6:04.

Clarkson came back to take the lead in the second period, scoring the go-ahead goal with 12.7 seconds to play in the period on a power play. Tim Marks tied the score for the Knights at the 11:57 mark as his shot from the top of the right faceoff circle beat Saint goalie Kain Tisi and Brandon DeFazio scored the go-ahead goal on a power play rebound at 19:47 to make it a 2-1 game after two periods.

Tisi, a senior making his first career playoff start, finished with 23 saves for the win on Sunday while Karpowich made 30 on Sunday night and had a total of 108 in the three games.

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