SLU Icemen Bomb Yale, 7-0

With the entire St. Lawrence first line hailing from Ontario, Canada, it's not very surprising that a young man from Thunder Bay helped lead the Larries to a victory over Yale last night in the first game of the ECAC semifinals.

Still you wouldn't have expected that his main accomplice would have travelled to Boston Garden all the way from...Munster Hamlet, Ontario.

Thunder Bay's Rick Mulligan scored a goal in each of the first two periods--when this contest was not yet a joke--and SLU wing Dave Saunders, the pride and joy of Munster Hamlet, notched a goal and two assists to lead St. Lawrence to a 7-0 thrashing of the Bulldogs.

The Saints, now 24-8, will face Harvard tonight in the ECAC championship game. At stake is the league title and an assured spot in the NCAA post-season tourney, although both teams will probably get bids either way.

"We certainly didn't expect the margin of the score," St. Lawrence Coach Joe Marsh said after his team hit the touch-down mark. "It's a little misleading."

Hurting in Many Places

Yale was hurt by the fine goaltending of SLU goalie Scott Yearwood, a somnambulant power play (which went 0-for-5, but was considerably worse than that), and more than its share of bad breaks.

Three times in the third period alone, Eli shots eluded Yearwood only to strike the posts or crossbar and bounce away.

Although it was the Ontario connection which carried SLU last night, the Larries first goal--and eventual game-winner--came from the Lappin twins of St. Charles, III.

At 12:27 in the first period, Tim Lappin collected the puck alone at the blue line and skated in untouched on Yale netminder Mike Schwalb. The goalie deflected the initial thrust, but twin Pete was there to stuff home the rebound. SLU never looked back.

The story remained, however, the monster from Munster Hamlet. After he executed a pretty cross to Pete McGeough at the start of the final period ending any remaining suspense, a breakaway goal in the final minutes of play was gravy.

And that's something they can't get enough of in Munster Hamlet these days.