A trio of rookies helped St. Lawrence University to a 3-0 lead and freshman goaltender Kyle Hayton made big saves at key junctures as the Saints swept a season series from Brown University for the first time since 1991-92 with a 5-2 ECAC Hockey win at Appleton Arena in Canton Saturday night.
 
The Saints, who have now won four straight and five of their last six, swept their weekend series at home for the first time this season and improve to 13-10-2 overall and 9-4-0 in league play. Brown is 4-15-0 overall and 1-11-0 in the ECAC. Brown was the only team among all ECAC teams to have earned at least one point against the Saints in each of the last 22 years prior to Saturday's win. The Saints beat the Bears by the same score in Providence in November to set up the season sweep.
 
The Saints opened the scoring on a unique play midway through the first period as junior center Sean McGovern took the puck from defenseman Eric Sweetman behind the Brown net and flipped a pass over the top of the goal to sophomore Christian Horn who was alone in the short slot. Horn settled the puck and banged it past Brown goalie Tim Ernst for his second goal of the weekend and fourth of the season at 9:25.
 
"That was quite the play," said Saint coach Greg Carvel of McGovern's pass.  "I didn't think we started out very well, and Kyle made some big saves until we could get our offense in gear, but that gave us a little lift."
 
Freshman Mike Marnell, who scored the overtime game winner in Friday's 3-2 win over Yale, got his second of the weekend at 10:29 of the second, putting  the puck past Ernst from the short slot for his fifth of the year, and it went to 3-0 7:03 into the third when Joe Sullivan deflected a shot from the point by Gavin Bayreuther after a faceoff win in the Brown end.
 
The Bears avoided the shutout when junior Nick Lappin gunned a shot under the crossbar at 9:10 of the third for his fifth of the year but the Saints had a quick answer when senior Gunnar Hughes broke up the middle on a Saint power play and scored his ninth at 10:25.
 
Brown again countered on a hard shot through traffic by defenseman Joey de Concilys for his fifth of the season at 15:26, but it took the Saints only 14 seconds to get that one back as Woody Hudson scored his fourth of the year from Justin Bruckel to complete the scoring at 15:40.
 
"The best thing I took out of tonight's game was our ability to answer right after they scored. We could have had a better night, but another sign of a good team is when you can win games when you aren't playing right at the top of your game." Carvel added.
 
Hayton finished with 29 saves for the Saints including a big breakaway save on Lappin  late in the second period while Ernst had 37 for Brown.