Senior captain Kaden Pickering scored a game-winning power-play goal in the second period, and Emil Zetterquist made 40 saves, as the St. Lawrence University men's hockey team spoiled the grand opening of the Ed Robson Arena by a score of 2-1 on Friday night against Colorado College.

The Scarlet and Brown move to 1-0-0 on the season, while the Tigers fell to 0-1-0.

The win tonight was the first for the Saints against Colorado College. The Tigers were 6-0-0 against St. Lawrence previously.

The season-opening win was the first for the Saints since the 2015-16 season when they beat Niagara 5-2 at Appleton Arena. The win was also the first season-opening road win since the 2012-13 season when St. Lawrence won a 4-3 overtime game against Western Michigan at Kalamazoo.

"We found a way to win a hockey game tonight, and Zetterquist was great in net," said Charles W. Appleton Head Men's Hockey Coach Brent Brekke "However, we weren't close to playing our type of game tonight. They have very good team speed, which gave us troubles, and created alot of turnovers which allowed them to keep momentum for much of the night. We need to be better tomorrow."

The defending ECAC champions wasted little time getting on the board to start their 2021-22 season. Less than two minutes into the game, Drake Burgin collected the puck off a Tiger turnover and tossed it up the sideboards through the neutral zone. Ashton Fry flew up the side and chipped the puck past the Colorado College defenseman, causing a two-on-one opportunity. Fry chipped a pass over to Aleksi Peltonen, who deflected the puck through the 6'6" frame of Dominic Basse to give the Skating Saints the early 1-0 lead. Peltonen scored the all-important trivia question goal as he became the first player to score in the new Ed Robson Arena. Burgin was credited with his first career assist on the play.

With 14:31 to go in the second, Tigers forward Tyler Coffey was whistled for interference, putting the Scarlet and Brown on the power play. It took only 31 seconds for Pickering to capitalize and put St. Lawrence up 2-0. Chris Pappas passed the puck up the right-side boards to fellow first-year Philippe Chapleau. Chapleau slid down the line and dished the puck back to Pappas, who was coming up the wall. The Toronto, Ontario native collected and sent a skip pass across the ice to Pickering, who was ready with a one-timer to beat Basse in the net. Pappas and Chapleau each earned their first career assists on the power-play tally.

Colorado College cut the score in half with just under 10 minutes to go in the second period. The Tigers hemmed the Saints into their defensive zone and applied pressure looking for their first goal. Jordan Biro took a feed from Jack Millar, then fired a shot onto Zetterquist. Zetterquist challenged the effort and turned away the dangerous shot. However, the puck landed on the stick of Chase Foley, who buried the rebound on the far-side through two defenders to make it a 2-1 game.

The Scarlet and Brown were faced with significant adversity in the opening seconds of the third period as Pickering was given a five-minute major for boarding. The Tigers were able to get six shots off in the five-minute man-advantage, but Zetterquist and the Saints penalty kill stood tall turning the Tigers away to keep the 2-1 lead.

Zetterquist and the Saints were a perfect 6-for-6 on the penalty kill during the contest. Colorado College was 3-of-4 in man-down scenarios during the game.

Colorado College continued their hunt for an equalizer in the third by getting 14 shots on goal, while St. Lawrence generated two as they were playing the clock. The Tigers pulled Basse with 2:47 left in regulation for the 6-on-5 advantage, but the Scarlet and Brown came up huge in front of their goaltender blocking three shots in the barrage. Colorado College nearly tied the game up with ten seconds remaining as Logan Will had a wide-open look at a vacant net. Will fanned on a bouncing puck, and the Skating Saints held on for the 2-1 win.

Zetterquist, who was named to the pre-season ECAC All-League team, was tremendous in net stopping 40 shots for his first win of the season. Basse stopped 12 of 14 shots in the effort.
 
St. Lawrence will lace up the skates again tomorrow night at Ed Robson Arena in the second game of the road series with the Tigers. Tomorrow's puck drop is scheduled for 6:00 MST (8:00 EST).