Four veteran forwards netted goals for the St. Lawrence men's hockey team as the Saints beat Quebec Trois-Rivieres (UQTR) 4-1 in head coach Mark Morris' debut in Appleton Arena in an exhibition game on Sunday afternoon to open the 2016-17 season.

Jacob Pritchard's unassisted tally late in the second period went as the game winner, while Drew Smolcynski, Alexander Dahl and Mike Marnell also scored for the Saints. Though the stats don't count in exhibition games, first-year Carson Gicewicz picked up a point in his first collegiate contest on Sunday afternoon with an assist on Dahl's third-period goal.

Smolcynski put the Saints out in front at the 6:41 mark of the first period when he redirected a pass from Nolan Gluchowski at the top of the crease, beating the Patriotes goaltender Alexandr Belanger along the ice.

The Saints carried the 1-0 lead into the second period before Jeremy Beaudry pulled UQTR even on the power play with a quick wrist shot from the slot that sailed over the left shoulder of the Saints' Kyle Hayton at the 4:10 mark.

With time winding down in the middle frame, Pritchard intercepted a pass at the top of the St. Lawrence defensive zone and broke out two-on-one with Smolcynski cutting down the left wing. The Macomb, Mich., native elected to take the shot himself, blasting one off the inside of the far post and in for the eventual game winner and a 2-1 lead for the Scarlet and Brown.

Midway through the third, Dahl, the Saints senior captain this season, buried the rebound from a shot by Carson Gicewicz to extend the lead to 3-1. Michael Ederer also picked up an assist on the play, feeding Gicewicz on the left wing.

The fourth and final goal of the afternoon for St. Lawrence came at 16:27 of the third period on a heads-up play by junior defenseman Matt Purmal.

After UQTR cleared the zone, Purmal collected the puck behind the St. Lawrence net and sent a two-line pass to Marnell, who split the defense at the blue line, moved in one-on-one with Belanger and finished high on the stick side to conclude the scoring.

Belanger made 31 saves for Quebec, while junior netminder Kyle Hayton stopped 24 for St. Lawrence.

The game featured 18 combined penalties and just one power-play goal for the visitors. The Saints finished 0-for-5 with the man advantage.

Regular season action begins for St. Lawrence on Thursday, as Morris and the Saints head to Penn State to take on the Nittany Lions in nonconference play.

Game times for Thursday, Oct. 6 and Friday, Oct. 7 are slated for 7 p.m.