Garnet Chargers hang on
Goals by Korpi Hanley boost Union in SO
Maggie Kelley/Saint Rose
SCHENECTADY — On a night in which the Union College hockey team was no stranger to the penalty box, perhaps it was fitting that penalties are not called in the tiebreaking shootout format.
Union battled the penalty bug for 65 minutes and hung tough despite being whistled for nine infractions for 40 minutes of penalty box time. Goals by Carter Korpi and Nate Hanley in the shootout, combined with a pair of saves by goaltender Kyle Chauvette, gave Union a shootout victory over St. Lawrence after the teams played to a 2-2 tie Saturday at Messa Rink.
The win, combined with Friday’s victory over Clarkson, gives Union (911-1, 4-5-1) five valuable ECAC standings points.
“It is a double-edged sword. We survived it but if we do that again, you are not going to win hockey games taking that many penalties,” Union coach Josh Hauge said. “We lost some key guys and some key guys stepped up for us on the (penalty) kills. Huge gutsy effort to the guys who had to play a lot of minutes because we were killing a lot.”
Union, which pair of penalties took a in the game’s opening minutes and had to kill off a five-onthree situation for a full two minutes, managed to kill off six of eight St. Lawrence power play chances, though St. Lawrence (512-3, 3-4-1) did record 17 of its 29 shots on goal on the man advantage. Making matters more difficult for Union was defensemen John Prokop and Nathan Kelly were issued major penalties and game misconducts, Prokop in the first period and Kelly in the second.
After Hanley opened the scoring for Union 5 minutes, 58 seconds into the game, Prokop was called for cross-checking after the whistle, giving St. Lawrence a five-minute power play. The Saints cashed in twice with goals by Phillippe Chapleau and Luc Salem to take a 2-1 lead into the first intermission.
After killing off Kelly’s major penalty, Union tied the score at 2 on Chaz Smedsrud’s goal at 15:04 of the second when he took a pass from Brandon Buhr and beat St. Lawrence goaltender Ben Kraws for his ninth goal of the season.
“Killing off those penalties gave us a lot of momentum going into the third and, in a way, figure out a way to get the win,” Smedsrud said. “Our PK has been good all year and they came out big tonight.”
St. Lawrence had 66 shots attempted in the game compared to 44 for Union but the Garnet Chargers sold out in front of Chauvette by keeping the shooting lanes clear and blocking 16 of the Saints’ shot attempts.
“It is tough, there is a lot of zone movement but the guys in front of me, I haven’t seen guys block that many pucks in a while,” Chauvette said. “The guys just sacrificed their bodies. It is great to see and I appreciate it so much.”
After a scoreless fiveminute overtime session, Chauvette opened the shootout with a save on Logan Ritchie’s bid for St. Lawrence and on the other end of the ice, Korpi scored for Union to give the Garnet Chargers the advantage.
Chauvette made another stop in the second round of the shootout, denying Felikss Gavars and Hanley clinched the win with a goal through the pads of Kraws to end the game.
“His legs were pretty wide so I just shot it fivehole,” Hanley said.