February 26, 2001

Early St. Lawrence goals lead the Saints over the Red, 3-2

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The team did everything it wanted to do.

Cornell (12-10-5, 10-7-3 ECAC) accomplished just about every goal it had hoped to achieve against St. Lawrence (16-10-4, 13-4-3) Friday night except one. The Red just couldn’t win.

In front of a raucous crowd that was more than happy to remind the Red and its traveling entourage exactly who was tops in the ECAC, the Saints pulled off a huge victory in their quest for a second straight ECAC title with a 3-2 win over Cornell.

For a Big Red squad still looking for offense, the answer seemed to be putting the puck on net. The icers spent the entire game doing just that, tossing shot after shot at Saints goaltender Jeremy Symington. But he was up to the test, with a performance that topped Cornell junior netminder Matt Underhill on this night.

Two early chances for SLU resulted in one goal and one near goal for the Saints. At the 11:09 mark of the first period, Underhill stopped a shot off the faceoff, but couldn’t find the puck as it slid behind him along the goal line. Blair Clarence cleaned up the garbage for the first of his two goals on the evening. The Saints had similar chance a minute and a half later, but couldn’t get to the puck before Underhill fell on top of it.

“I didn’t think we played particularly well in the first ten minutes,” Cornell head coach Mike Schafer ’86 said. “I think our guys were a little bit anxious in the first period.”

Giving up the first goal is a trend that has haunted the Red now for three weeks. The team continues to dig itself a hold it is forced to climb out of.

Robin Carruthers gave the Saints a 2-0 lead in the second when he fired a shot past Underhill. Carruthers finished the night with three points on a goal and two assists.

The Red finally got on the board on a peculiar play. While each side had four skaters on the ice, sophomore Stephen B