The St. Lawrence men's hockey team fell to fifth-ranked Quinnipiac, 7-2, on Saturday night in an ECAC Hockey game in Appleton Arena.

Penalties proved to be costly for St. Lawrence in the loss, as the Bobcats took a 3-0 lead in the first period, with the help of two of their three power play goals on the night, and never looked back. The visitors led 4-0 before the Saints got on the board with Cade Gleekel's sixth of the year.

Zach Risteau led St. Lawrence with a goal and an assist and Jake Stevens, Ryan Garvey and Keenan Suthers each finished with assists in the loss.

The win is the 20^th of the season for the Bobcats, as they improve to 20-5-1 overall and 9-4-1 in conference games, while the Saints fall to 4-21-1 and are 2-11-1 against league opponents.

Odeen Tufto opened when he redirected a pass from Brandon Fortunato on the back door behind Saints' starter Daniel Mannella at 4:53 of the first period for the first power-play goal and a 1-0 lead.

Chase Priskie extended the lead to 2-0 with a power-play tally of his own with a touch on a centering feed from Wyatt Bongiovanni at the edge of the crease at 11:18.



At 16:06 of the first period, Alex Whelan got a piece of a shot from the point by Karlis Cukste for a 3-0 Quinnipiac lead just one second after the Saints had killed off a penalty to Philip Alftberg.

Early in the second period, Bongiovanni got his first of two on the night with a quick shot off a draw that best Mannella high over the glove to extend Quinnipiac's lead to four goals.

Mannella was pulled after Bongiovanni's tally after stopping 13 in 22:36 minutes played. He was relieved by Arthur Brey, who finished with 23 saves in 37:24.

At the four-minute mark of the middle frame, with the Saints on the power play, Risteau hustled to win a foot race to a loose puck after a stretch pass from Stevens skipped over a stick in the Quinnipiac zone. He then quickly pushed it over to Gleekel for an easy finish on the back post to make it a 4-1 game.  

Just 1:28 later, Quinnipiac regained its four-goal lead with Bongiovanni's second of the game, this one on the power play, when he put a rebound off a shot from Brogan Rafferty behind Brey, who had come above the blue paint to cut off the initial angle.

Ethan de Jong's first of two on the night at 18:46 gave the Bobcats a 6-1 lead through 40 minutes.

The team's traded goals in the final frame, with Risteau scoring the Saints' second of the night at 6:39 with a wide-open look from the side of the net on a rebound after Quinnipiac's Keith Petruzzelli made the initial stop of Ryan Garvey.

De Jong notched his second of the game just over a minute later for Quinnipiac to push the eventual 7-2 margin.

Quinnipiac outshot St. Lawrence 43-24 on Saturday night, with starter Andrew Shortridge making 14 saves in just under 40 minutes of play and Petruzzelli stopping eight of the nine shots he faced in the third period.

The Bobcats finished 3-for-8 on the power play, while the Saints went 1-for-2.

St. Lawrence will travel to Colgate and Cornell next weekend to faceoff with the Raiders and Big Red for the first time this season.