Nov. 7, 2008

Brandon Bollig's goal 74 seconds into overtime was the game winner as the St. Lawrence men's hockey team beat Yale 3-2 before 2,645 at Appleton Arena on the opening night of ECAC Hockey play.

The Bulldogs, who swept St. Lawrence last season, got regulation-time goals from sophomore forward Broc Little and senior captain Matt Nelson, the first of the year for both players.

Junior Billy Blase, making his first start of 2008-09, stopped 27 shots including a dozen in the scoreless third period.

The visitors outshot the Saints 38-30 and kept the pressure on Saints goalie Alex Petizian, who had 36 saves.

Brock McBride opened the scoring with a power-play tally at 3:28 of the first period. It turned out to be the only man-advantage score of the night.

Little, who tucked the puck inside Petizian after a pretty move, hit the net at even-strength at 8:05 to even things at 1-1.

One minute and 38 seconds later, Mike McKenzie converted a Casey Parenteau pass to put the home team up 2-1 at the first intermission.

Nelson's goal at 14:25 was the only score of the middle frame for either side though the Elis outshot SLU 18-5. The captain's shot bounced off a sliding blueliner and went under the crossbar.

The Elis, who were scoreless on five powerplays, outshot SLU 38-29 through three periods but the first shot on target in the overtime was the winner. Bollig, a freshman forward, reached out and poked the puck over the goal line in a scramble around the net with 1:14 gone in overtime

Yale travels to Clarkson on Saturday night for a 7 p.m. faceoff.

Report filed by Steve Conn, Yale Sports Publicity Director