When the standings are bunched as tightly as they are this year in ECAC Hockey, every team believes it has a shot. It doesn’t matter that St. Lawrence suffered an 0-7-1 run over eight conference games during the middle part of the season. Two wins last week changed the team’s entire outlook with three weeks remaining in the regular season.
“That’s what I love about this league,” St. Lawrence junior forward Kyle Flanagan said. “We know with a pair of wins this weekend we can move up to fourth place with some help from some other teams. It’s almost like we’re preparing for the playoffs every week.”
Greg Carey ranks second on the Saints in scoring with 24 points and scored two big goals in a win at Yale.
While the mathematics cited there are slightly exaggerated and wouldn’t assure St. Lawrence of that top-four perch in the standings just yet, the point is well-made. Every team has a lot left to play for and St. Lawrence has positioned itself for the stretch run by going from its lowest point in the season to one of its highest.
The Saints hit rock bottom on the road in the last weekend of January, in a 4-0 loss at Rensselaer and a 6-0 loss at Union on consecutive nights. It left the Saints mired in an eight-game ECAC Hockey winless streak, and tied for last place in the standings. A day off in the week that followed and a couple of energetic practices got St. Lawrence turned around.
They went to Yale and pulled out a 4-3 overtime victory, then went to Providence and earned a 5-3 win at Brown. In the game at Yale to start the weekend, St. Lawrence built a 3-1 lead after two periods before Yale rallied to tie it, and outshot the Saints 14-4 in the third period. St. Lawrence turned it around in overtime and got the game-winning goal on the power play from Greg Carey. It was Carey’s second of the night, and linemate Chris Martin also scored. Flanagan, who centered those players against Yale, had two assists.
“Guys were flying, and it was a great response. We stayed positive during the week even though we felt that the RPI and Union trip was the lowest part of the season,” Flanagan said.
The following night at Brown showed St. Lawrence what it takes to sustain success. First, an ability to handle adversity is necessary. Brown scored three first-period goals while St. Lawrence attempted to kill off a major penalty. The Bears’ goals came in a span of 2:08 during that major power play and they held a 3-0 lead after 20 minutes. The Saints scored five unanswered goals over the last two periods, and they came from five different players. More importantly, each of the team’s four forward lines contributed at least one goal.
“Lately we’ve seen that we need to get consistency through all four lines,” Flanagan said. “We’re a pretty young team still and the biggest thing is to have everyone know their role and know that they make an impact for us. We had goals from all four lines on Saturday night.”
Flanagan has carried his share, and has maintained the point-per-game pace he’s been on since his freshman year, even though he missed eight games in the middle of the season due to a concussion. He teams with Greg Carey on a very strong first line, but the Saints are at their best when all 18 skaters are producing.
By virtue of being a young team — only three seniors have appeared in 20 or more games this year — it was inevitable that St. Lawrence would battle some inconsistencies. The Saints started the year with a coaching transition as Joe Marsh left to address medical concerns and assistants Mike Hurlbut and Greg Carvel took over the day-to-day operations of the team. After five losses to start the season, St. Lawrence showed signs of life with five wins in its next six games. Then came four more losses followed by a five-game unbeaten streak.
It’s been a streaky season, and perhaps last weekend’s sweep of Yale and Brown has set off another streak of success. The Saints play their next four games at Appleton Arena, and can leapfrog teams in the standings with a successful run on home ice.
“Our away record is actually better than our home record this year, and that’s frustrating because we love to play at Appleton,” Flanagan said. “We just have to come out a little harder and make it a difficult place to play.”
That opportunity starts this weekend when Quinnipiac visits on Friday and Princeton comes in on Saturday. St. Lawrence trails Quinnipiac by four points and is tied with Princeton. If the Saints are turning things toward another winning streak, it could pay big dividends in the standings.
