Top-ranked Cornell shut out the St. Lawrence University men's hockey team, 5-0, on Friday night at Lynah Rink in Ithaca, New York.

Cornell scored one minute and 49 seconds into the first period and added two goals in both the second and third periods to push to the eventual five-goal margin. Both third period goals came on the power play.

Shots were even 7-7 after the first period, but Cornell limited the Saints to just five in the middle fame and seven again in the third to finish with a 31-19 advantage in shots on goal. Senior netminder Daniel Mannella finished with 26 saves for St. Lawrence.

It was Max Andreev who opened the scoring with what proved to be the game winner, finishing off an odd-man rush with a backdoor tap-in off a feed from Jack Malone.

The Big Red extended the lead to 3-0 with two goals in less than two minutes in the middle frame. The first of the period came from Michael Regush on a wraparound while Mannella's pad was tied up in a scrum on the opposite post, which kept him from getting all the way across. After review, though, officials ruled it a good goal for a 2-0 game. Joe Leahy made it 3-0 with a blast from the point at the 7:03 mark. He led the Big Red with a goal and two assists on the night.

Sam Malinski and Matt Stienburg tacked on power-play goals in the final frame to push to the 5-0 margin, but some of the Saints' best offensive chances on the night also came in the final 20 minutes of play.

Jordan Steinmetz, who had a solid game up front both 5-on-5 and on special teams for the Saints, started a 2-on-1 rush into the Cornell zone with Kaden Pickering with the Saints shorthanded midway through the period. Pickering got behind the defender and moved into the slot for a shot, but Cornell's Matthew Galajda made his best save of the night to help preserve his shutout.

On the Saints' final power play chance of the game, Alex Gilmour tipped two shots in from the point in front of Galajda; the first was saved and the second popped just over the crossbar. Minutes later, Jake Stevens rang the crossbar with a blast from the point.

The Big Red finished 2-for-5 on the man advantage, while the Saints went 0-for-2.

With the win over the Saints and a Clarkson tie with Colgate, Cornell claimed the ECAC Hockey Regular Season Championships outright on Friday night. The Big Red improve to 22-2-4 overall with a 17-2-2 mark against conference opponents.

The Saints fall to 4-25-4 and 2-18-1 in league play with one game remaining in the regular season. They'll travel to Colgate on Saturday, February 29 for a 7 p.m. puck drop in Hamilton, New York.