BURLINGTON, Vt. - The Catamounts (8-8-3) used a six-goal second period to race past St. Lawrence (4-12-1) 8-1 Saturday night in non-conference action from Gutterson Fieldhouse. Seven Vermont skaters had two or more points including Simon Jellus who led the way with a goal and two assists.
HOW IT HAPPENED
- The Catamounts scored first for the fourth straight contest with an early goal 2:17 into the action. Xavier Henry fired a shot from the point that was redirected in the slot by Will Zapernick and past SLU's Mason Kucenski. Massimo Lombardi also earned an assist his seventh of the year.
- Jens Richards doubled the Catamount lead with a great individual effort at the 13:45 mark of the opening frame. Blake Steenerson won a puck battle in the neutral zone and got the puck up to Richards. Jens faked a SLU defender and then pushed the puck through his legs breaking in on a two-on-one rush. Richards looked to feed a cross-crease pass to a cutting Zapernick but the last SLU defender back deflected the pass into the net for Richards fourth goal of the year. Duncan Ramsay earned the secondary assist on the play.
- Colin Kessler made it a three-goal lead just 53 seconds into the second period. In transition Kessler put a shot on net that Kucenski padded aside but the rebound was pushed backed towards the net by Timofei Spitserov. Kessler followed his own shot and tapped it home for his seventh goal of the year. Jax Wismer earned the secondary assist.
- St. Lawrence's Jan Lasak got the Saints on the board with his second goal of the season at the 2:41 mark of the second period. He skated behind the Vermont net before twisting and firing a shot through traffic and past UVM's Axel Mangbo. Lasak's tally broke a shutout streak of 105:57 for the Catamounts sophomore goaltender.
- Massimo Lombardi reestablished the three-goal lead at the 5:50 mark of the second period. Ramsay fed a stretch pass to Lombardi and he blew by the Saints defense and skated in alone on Kucenski, Lombardi went bar down with a snipe for his sixth goal of the year.
- With 5:45 left in the second period Charlie Kinsman notched his first career collegiate goal to make it 5-1 Vermont. A centering feed from Joel Maatta found Kinsman at the point and he wired it home.
- Simon Jellus and Isak Walther scored goals 25 seconds apart to make it 7-1 Vermont with 3:07 to play in the middle frame.
- Max Strand scored on the power play with 1:04 left in the second period to make it a six-goal period for Vermont and make it 8-1.
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
- Tonight was the first time Vermont has scored eight goals since topping UMass 11-1 on November 22, 2014. Assistant Coach Brendan Bradley had a goal and two assists in that contest.
- Saturday's six-goal second period was UVM's best 20 minutes in the Steve Wiedler era.
- Max Strand has recorded a point in eight straight games, over that stretch he has five goals and five assists. The first year forward leads Vermont in scoring with 18 points this season.
- UVM has scored a power play goal in its last five games.
- The Catamounts complete the non-conference portion of their schedule with a record of 5-4-1.
- With tonight's 8-1 decision, Community Bank N.A. will donate $600 to Special Olympics Vermont. Community Bank, N.A. donates $75 per goal to Special Olympics Vermont for every goal the men's and women's team scores this season.
UP NEXT
The Catamounts begin a stretch of 15 Hockey East games in 57 days to close out the regular season as they travel to face No. 15 Boston University in a two-game set. On Friday, January 10 the teams will faceoff at 7 p.m. followed by a 5 p.m. contest on Saturday.
The weekend set at Agganis Arena will air live on ESPN+. As always, it will also be broadcast live on WVMT (96.3 FM/620 AM) with the voice of the Catamounts, Adam Lafleur.
