St. Lawrence Saints 2016-17 Season

[Saints Fan]

Being in CT (surrounded by Q-pac, Yale fans) I have come to rely on this site to keep up with SLU hockey. While I haven't been able to get to a live game yet (probably will at Yale in January) I did watch the games in Ireland on NESN. Sure seems like Hayton continues to play well enough to keep us in every game. I just hope we can put a few more pucks in the net. I would be curious to hear how some of the SLU fans that have attended games think the team is playing and anything/anyone I should pay particular attention to when I see them in January. Go Saints!

 

[critsports]

Re: St. Lawrence Saints 2016-17 Season

Being in CT (surrounded by Q-pac, Yale fans) I have come to rely on this site to keep up with SLU hockey. While I haven't been able to get to a live game yet (probably will at Yale in January) I did watch the games in Ireland on NESN. Sure seems like Hayton continues to play well enough to keep us in every game. I just hope we can put a few more pucks in the net. I would be curious to hear how some of the SLU fans that have attended games think the team is playing and anything/anyone I should pay particular attention to when I see them in January. Go Saints!

I also live in CT........just as an FYI this USCHO forum has very little posting from SLU fans in it. Most everyone has gravitated over to a Facebook page that contains way more information and postings. If you are on Facebook search for a group called St. Lawrence Hockey fans. That site is the most active one for SLU fans. For some reason we don't get as many posts here on USCHO any more.

As for what to look for. Start from the back end out. Hayton keeps us in every game and is one of the best goalies in the country. From there our defense is our strength as we get a lot of offense from our Defense. We are so deep right now on D that a starter from the last couple of years is hardly getting into games. Bayreuther leads the way and is one of the top scoring D in the country. Sweetman is physical and throws wicked "old school" hip checks. Gluchowski is a little of both. A rookie defenseman Ben Finkelstein is making a splash.
Up front Joe Sullivan is the engine that runs the team. He takes a licking and keeps on ticking. The most talented scorers are Pritchard and Marnell. We get scoring from a variety of players so you really can't key on any one player. One of the guys who I really like his game is Carson Gicewicz. Big power forward type and can score and hit.

The team is playing well and the first half of the season was a success. We started with a VERY DIFFICULT out of conference schedule with the likes of Penn State, Minnesota, Wisconsin, U Mass Lowell, Providence, etc. So to come through all those teams plus Quinnipiac twice and Harvard and Union once and come out 10-5-4 is pretty strong. We have a stern test coming up at UVM who is highly ranked. The sketchy part is that is our first game back after the break so you never know what you are going to get. I went to a game against UVM last year with high hopes and it was one of the worst performances I've ever seen an SLU team put forth. If we are serious NCAA tournament contenders we need to come out of that UVM game with a "W". Union swept them up there recently so that's a barometer game for us.

 

[SLU'75]

Re: St. Lawrence Saints 2016-17 Season

I just signed up for a dinner and game in Ithaca Jan 21 that the SLU alumni office was promoting.It's always a pretty mean crowd there at Cornell,but looking forward to the evening.

 

[Ralph Baer]

Re: St. Lawrence Saints 2016-17 Season

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">I'm proud to announce my commitment to St Lawrence University, excited to be a part of the Skating Saints family <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/saints?src=hash">#saints</a></p>— Philip Alftberg (@PhilipAlftberg) <a href="https://twitter.com/PhilipAlftberg/status/818623779542679554">January 10, 2017</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

 

[Ivan Lennon]

Re: St. Lawrence Saints 2016-17 Season

I just signed up for a dinner and game in Ithaca Jan 21 that the SLU alumni office was promoting.It's always a pretty mean crowd there at Cornell,but looking forward to the evening.

Me too - coming down from Rochester w/ 2 friends - former B.U Q.B. ('66) and the other from C.U.
Thereby ending a 30 plus year tradition of beers at The Chapter House (burned down) and pizza at The Nines

 

[Saints Fan]

Re: St. Lawrence Saints 2016-17 Season

Based on ticket sales and the alumni event prior to the game I expect a good showing of Saints fans at the whale Saturday night. Very excited to see the team live. Historically the officials have not been our friend at Yale but there is always hope. This weekend will hopefully be the beginning of a strong finish to the regular season. Anyone have any updates on the injuries?

 

[Saints#1]

Based on ticket sales and the alumni event prior to the game I expect a good showing of Saints fans at the whale Saturday night. Very excited to see the team live. Historically the officials have not been our friend at Yale but there is always hope. This weekend will hopefully be the beginning of a strong finish to the regular season. Anyone have any updates on the injuries?

No updates on injuries, other than that Gavin was listed last week as 4-6 weeks. Not sure if that is news or not to you, but all that I know so far none the less. That's a pretty big loss, but thankfully we are pretty well covered with defensemen. So, it could be much worse. Hoping Smolczynski is back this week as he was listed as out last weekend due to illness. I would imagine he would be back. Would be interested to know if anyone has any updates on Pritchard?

 

[Saints#1]

Re: St. Lawrence Saints 2016-17 Season

I heard some more bad news today as another injured player has been added to the list as now Mike Marnell is injured again. It wasn't specified what type of injury it is and how long he will be out, but we just can't seem to catch a break on the injuries this season. There is some good news though as Smolczynski will be back this weekend after being out with an injury and Pritchard is back to practicing with the team after his injury. Not sure yet if he will be playing this weekend or not. Hopefully we push through the injuries and keep on winning.

 

[Muskieman]

Re: St. Lawrence Saints 2016-17 Season

If ever there was a gut-check win, tonight's 2-1 win at Brown was it. GO SAINTS.

 

[Saints#1]

Re: St. Lawrence Saints 2016-17 Season

If ever there was a gut-check win, tonight's 2-1 win at Brown was it. GO SAINTS.

Indeed! This was not a pretty win, but a win none the less. Nice effort in the 3rd period to pull this one out. Good teams find ways to win games and we found a way to win this one. Way to go Saints!

 

[critsports]

Re: St. Lawrence Saints 2016-17 Season

Indeed! This was not a pretty win, but a win none the less. Nice effort in the 3rd period to pull this one out. Good teams find ways to win games and we found a way to win this one. Way to go Saints!

If ever there was a gut-check win, tonight's 2-1 win at Brown was it. GO SAINTS.

Agreed but I think they are going to have to play better at Ylae or we wind up splitting the weekend. Ylae is playing better (although not up to past year's standards.) I was really, really worried when I saw tonight's line up. The lack of potential scoring up front was really scary.

I heard some more bad news today as another injured player has been added to the list as now Mike Marnell is injured again. It wasn't specified what type of injury it is and how long he will be out, but we just can't seem to catch a break on the injuries this season. There is some good news though as Smolczynski will be back this weekend after being out with an injury and Pritchard is back to practicing with the team after his injury. Not sure yet if he will be playing this weekend or not. Hopefully we push through the injuries and keep on winning.

I know with Bayreuther they said it was a hand injury. Anyone know more than that??? Pritchard skating is good news but with a hand injury he is likely skating just to get his legs back. The issue is how soon can he grip the stick or take contact to the hand without further injury. Any news on Marnell as to what might be wrong with him? While the players left are perfectly capable of scoring.......the guys who are out are the ones who create the opportunities for most of the other players to score.

 

[critsports]

Re: St. Lawrence Saints 2016-17 Season

Considering the health of the team...of lack thereof; a three point weekend on the road was a decent result. It's always nice to get a player like Pritchard back....but then you lose Garvey. Get one back, lose another one. I really thought we'd split this weekend so maybe I undersold what was left in the line up....but, when I looked at the line up card and saw (no offense) the 3rd and 4th lines I thought man we are going to struggle to score.

Looking around the league I'm still scratching my head about Harvard's weekend. I really thought they were the class of the league. I could see them losing 2-1 to Union at Achilles but last nights loss at RPI was really beyond belief. Now it is starting to look like Cornell with 3 games in hand will make a real scoot up to the top of the standings while Union just keeps staying up top. Q Pac is up there but they will likely drop out of the top 4 as they have played way more games than anyone. Next weekends game against Cornell now looms really large.

 

[Saints#1]

Considering the health of the team...of lack thereof; a three point weekend on the road was a decent result. It's always nice to get a player like Pritchard back....but then you lose Garvey. Get one back, lose another one. I really thought we'd split this weekend so maybe I undersold what was left in the line up....but, when I looked at the line up card and saw (no offense) the 3rd and 4th lines I thought man we are going to struggle to score.

Looking around the league I'm still scratching my head about Harvard's weekend. I really thought they were the class of the league. I could see them losing 2-1 to Union at Achilles but last nights loss at RPI was really beyond belief. Now it is starting to look like Cornell with 3 games in hand will make a real scoot up to the top of the standings while Union just keeps staying up top. Q Pac is up there but they will likely drop out of the top 4 as they have played way more games than anyone. Next weekends game against Cornell now looms really large.

Tonight's tie felt like a win considering all of the injuries that are plaging the team right now. I feel like for the past two weekends we have managed to do something mid season that we haven't done the past few years and that is just find a way to win or hang on for the tie and just find a way not lose it. These last two weekends since the break we were 2-1-2 and I honestly don't think we would've done that well the last couple of years under these exact same circumstances. This team just finds a way to get it done. It may not always be pretty, it may leave a lot to be desired, but they just do it. This is a good sign heading down the stretch that if we can get everyone healthy and ready to go we can make it over that last hump and get to the next level. We have fallen short the past few years and this team seems to have that little something extra that just might make the difference.

 

[Saints Fan]

Re: St. Lawrence Saints 2016-17 Season

I thought the Saints played a good game. Despite really carrying the play in the first we were behind 1-0 on a good rush by Yale although we let the wing get to the post on the goal. They scored the second on a nice shot from the dot where the guy had a little too much space. Down 2-0 early in the 2nd after outshooting them 2:1 but despite that there was no quit. We got a little bit of a greasy goal and then we kept coming. We had a little stretch at the end of the second where we looked a little gassed. We played a strong third, got a nice goal on a great shot. Hayton played particularly well in the third and especially in OT. I was impressed with the way everyone played. I thought the effort was great. The team played hard and was well disciplined save a lazy clear near the end. No chippy stuff. After seeing the team play well, without a some key players, I think they are going to have a strong finish. The officials were not bad. A change from recent history in that rink.

 

[LTsatch]

Re: St. Lawrence Saints 2016-17 Season

I'd say the game wasn't chippy except the crosscheck into the post which ended the game and possibly the season for Hitchcock. Tough hit between the numbers which should have been at least a minor. Great hard fought game by both teams, nice to see Yale a least competing with decent teams now.

 

[Red Hockey]

Re: St. Lawrence Saints 2016-17 Season

I just signed up for a dinner and game in Ithaca Jan 21 that the SLU alumni office was promoting.It's always a pretty mean crowd there at Cornell,but looking forward to the evening.

Maybe a bit less mean than you're used to since the majority of students won't be back yet. There will be Greek Life members and rushers around but they probably won't be much of a presence during either game that weekend...

 

[joecct]

Re: St. Lawrence Saints 2016-17 Season

This stinks big time

@chnews: Bayreuther Out Up to 6 More Weeks - http://www.collegehockeynews.com/news/2017/01/16_bayreuther_out_up_to_6_more.php @SkatingSaints

 

[critsports]

Re: St. Lawrence Saints 2016-17 Season

This stinks big time

@chnews: Bayreuther Out Up to 6 More Weeks - http://www.collegehockeynews.com/news/2017/01/16_bayreuther_out_up_to_6_more.php @SkatingSaints

Tell me about it. I feel really, really bad for Gavin. Going into the weekend I think he was still number 2 in scoring among d-men in the country. Being out that much is not only going to hurt the team but all the Individual accolades he could have earned. He likely would have been a first team All American.....now, probably nothing coming his way being out that long. What a shame in his senior year. That also leaves a gaping hole on the blue line and for the offense. He generates so much offense plus his defensive play. Luckily we have some depth so Purmal is back playing regularly. Still.....just such sad news that it's still going to be that long. Initially we heard 4-6 when it happened........to hear now it still could be up to 6 more is just plan bad news.

 

[Saints#1]

Re: St. Lawrence Saints 2016-17 Season

I'd say the game wasn't chippy except the crosscheck into the post which ended the game and possibly the season for Hitchcock. Tough hit between the numbers which should have been at least a minor. Great hard fought game by both teams, nice to see Yale a least competing with decent teams now.

I thought Hitchcock was injured in the 2nd period?

 

[Saints#1]

Re: St. Lawrence Saints 2016-17 Season

Tell me about it. I feel really, really bad for Gavin. Going into the weekend I think he was still number 2 in scoring among d-men in the country. Being out that much is not only going to hurt the team but all the Individual accolades he could have earned. He likely would have been a first team All American.....now, probably nothing coming his way being out that long. What a shame in his senior year. That also leaves a gaping hole on the blue line and for the offense. He generates so much offense plus his defensive play. Luckily we have some depth so Purmal is back playing regularly. Still.....just such sad news that it's still going to be that long. Initially we heard 4-6 when it happened........to hear now it still could be up to 6 more is just plan bad news.

This is some pretty bad news. I feel awful for Gavin, this being his senior year and all. Very unfortunate for him and for the team. We can overcome this because as you mentioned we are fairly deep for defensemen in the lineup. We will miss his offensive prowess the most. Plenty of times throughout his college career he has been the difference maker from an offensive standpoint so we will need to have others step up and fill his shoes until he is back in the lineup. Problem is, those are some awfully big shoes to fill.