TROY, N.Y.  – Senior Karell Emard's tally at 9:53 of the second period proved to be the difference as St. Lawrence University held off a late comeback bid by Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) for a 2-1 ECAC Women's Hockey victory on Saturday. The Saints improve to 16-16-2 with an 11-11-0 conference record, while the Engineers slip to 10-16-7 and 8-12-2 in ECAC Hockey play. 

Despite the loss, RPI secured the eighth and final spot in the upcoming ECAC Hockey Playoffs as both Colgate and Yale – whom the Engineers hold an advantage over - lost their respective contests. The Engineers, who are making their third straight appearance in the conferece playoffs, will head to Ithaca on February 25 to begin a best-of-three Quarterfinals series against top-seeded Cornell. St. Lawrence wrapped up the seventh-seed and will travel to second-seeded Harvard.  Game times for all four series in the Playoffs are to be determined.  

Locked in a 1-1 tie after the opening period, the Saints would pull ahead in the middle stanza as Emard (Venise en Quebec, PQ/Dawson College Blues) punched in her own rebound at 9:53. Off an RPI turnover in the Saints' zone, junior Vanessa Emond (Levis, PQ/Dawson College Blues) sent a quick pass down the right boards to a speeding Emard. She took a quick shot that was blocked by a Rensselaer defender in the far circle, but found her own rebound and fired it over the shoulder of Sonja van der Bliek (Toronto, ON/Toronto Jr. Aeros) for the go-ahead tally. 

Holding a 12-7 advantage in shots in the final period, the Engineers looked to make it a 2-all contest, pulling van der Bliek at 18:15 in favor of the extra-attacker. Despite RPI's best efforts, the Saints were able to control the play and force the Engineers' netminder back out onto the ice with two seconds left on a face-off in the RPI zone. 

RPI opened the game's scoring just 52 seconds into the contest as junior Alisa Harrison (Vienna, VA/Washington Pride) banged home a loose puck at the left post. The play started at the right point as Amanda Castignetti (Anchorage, AK/Shattuck-St. Mary's) fired a shot in that deflected off the St. Lawrence goalie. Sophomore Taylor Horton (St. Thomas, ON/Bluewater Jr. Hawks) got off a shot of her own, but the goalie was unable to hold the rebound as Harrison slid in for her seventh tally of the year. 

While the Engineers had a number of chances in the Saints zone, RPI was unable to keep the visitors off the scoreboard for long as St. Lawrence tied it at 9:31. Rookie Bailey Habscheid (Wymark, SK) dug the puck out from the boards and backhanded it into play. It touched the stick of Kayla Sullivan (Caledonia, ON/Stoney Creek Jr. Sabres) as it passed through to the stick of Lauren Brozowski (Concord, MA/University of Connecticut), who slid through the low slot, catching the RPI netminder out of position for the equalizer.

In goal, Weisz stopped 31 shots for her 11th victory of the season, while van der Bliek stopped 20 shots to fall to 10-16-4 on the year.