First-year forward Chris Pappas scored his first two career goals in Scarlet and Brown, including the game-winner, to power the St. Lawrence University men's hockey team to a 4-3 comeback win over RPI on Friday night, as they opened their ECAC slate at the Houston Field House in Troy N.Y.

The Saints improved to 2-2-2 on the year and 1-0-0 in ECAC play. The Engineers fell to 4-3-1 and 2-1-0 in conference play.

Senior captain David Jankowski tallied three assists in the contest to help propel the offensive effort. Jankowski is the first player since Michael Laidley to put up three assists in a game. Laidley had three helpers in the Saints 4-3 overtime win against Minnesota in November of 2018.

"I thought we played a very strong game five-on-five tonight. RPI is a good hockey team and made alot of plays," said Charles W. Appleton Head Men's Hockey Coach Brent Brekke "We did a good job of managing the puck and got strong contributions from three guys coming back from injury in Pappas, Tim Makowski, and Ashton Fry. They all impacted the game tonight in a positive way. We also received another strong performance in net from Zetterquist, who made timely saves for us between the pipes."

RPI scored the first two goals of the game behind goals from Shane Sellar. The Engineers first goal started in the defensive zone, as Jake Johnson caused a turnover near the blue line. Johnson fired a stretch pass up to Sellar, who skated in and fired a shot onto Emil Zetterquist. The attempt was stopped, but Sellar picked up the rebound and attempted a wrap-around. The bid bounced off a sprawling Zetterquist and in for the 1-0 lead.

The second goal, much like the first, was started by an Engineers defensive play. The Saints attempted to chip the puck off the glass and out with just over five minutes in the first period, but were stopped in their tracks. The puck was stopped by Johnson at the blueline, and the defender was able to send a pass behind the St. Lawrence defense, who was caught skating up ice. Sellar and John Beaton played a little give-and-go before eventually burying the puck for the 2-0 lead.

The Scarlet and Brown cut the lead in half right before the one-minute mark of the first. Jankowski caused a turnover deep in RPI territory, then shoveled a pass to Justin Paul, who was supporting as the second forward in. Paul gathered the puck, then skated to open space in between the hash marks. The left-handed wrist shot from Paul beat Linden Marshall over his blocker to make it a 2-1 game going into intermission.

With eight minutes and 50 seconds remaining in the middle frame, Pappas scored the first goal of his career after causing pressure in the RPI zone. Pappas' forecheck deep in offensive zone caused a turnover from the Engineer defense. The puck was picked up by Paul, who fed a pass out to Jankowski. The senior fired a slapshot on goal, but it was redirected in front of Marshall by Pappas to even the score at 2-2.

It looked as if the game was going to go into the second intermission at 2-2, but a power play tally with three seconds left in the second put RPI up 3-2. The Engineers gained the offensive zone with ten seconds left, then passed a puck to Simon Kjellberg, who was operating the point. Kjellberg ripped a shot on goal, and the shot was deflected in by Jakub Lacka to make the score 3-2 going into the final frame.

The Skating Saints tied the game up once again with 13:31 remaining in the third. Josh Boyer made a great play on the sideboards to help gain possession before going off for a change. The puck would come free to Nicolas Trela in the neutral zone, who was followed by Max Dorrington and Luc Salem, as they skated their way to a three-on-one opportunity. Salem gained the puck and dished a pass off to Dorrington, who fed Trela with a cross crease pass. Trela would bury the opportunity over the pad of Marshall to knot the game at 3-3.

Just as the announcers mentioned the word overtime, Jankowski stunned the Engineers off a crafty offensive zone faceoff with 1:37 left in regulation. Jankowski won the draw clean and walked around the opposing center. The captain played the puck onto Marshall, starting a scrum in front of the crease. The puck came free behind the goaltender, who was down on the ice, and was poked in by Pappas for what ended up being the game-winning goal.

Zetterquist and the Saints shut it down the rest of the way to skate off with the 4-3 comeback win.

Zetterquist was solid in net stopping 27 shots in the win. Marshall stopped 25 of the 29 shots he faced in the losing effort.

RPI held the narrow 30-29 advantage in shots in the thrilling contest. The Saints went 0-4 in their power play opportunities, while RPI went 1-3 with their late tally in the second period.

The Skating Saints will be back in action tomorrow night when the team travels to Schenectady to take on Union at Messa Rink in the Achilles Center. Puck drop is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. and can be watched on ESPN+.