The St. Lawrence women's hockey team fell short in a defensive battle to the Clarkson University Golden Knights, 1-0, in non-conference play on Saturday afternoon at Appleton Arena.
 
The first period was evenly played with both teams playing stout defense.
 
Late in the period, Saints' forward Taylor Lum carried the puck into the Clarkson defensive zone. She passed the puck to Gabi Jones, who made a nice move around a Golden Knight defender, but her shot was stopped by Michelle Pasiechnyk. The rebound popped out into the slot, but a Clarkson defender blocked the follow-up opportunity to keep the game scoreless.
 
Clarkson had a slim 7-6 lead in shots-on-goal after one period of play.
 
The beginning of the second period was much like the first with strong transition defense on both ends.
 
The tone of the game would shift on a Saints' miscue in their defensive zone. Clarkson's Darcie Lappan gathered the loose puck off a turnover and beat SLU goaltender Lucy Morgan over her glove-side shoulder. The goal snapped St. Lawrence's 244 minute and 54 second shutout streak at Appleton Arena that dated five games back to the second period in the October 8 game against Syracuse.
 
A few minutes later, Morgan came up big. A shot from the point was deflected and hit off a Saints' defender and headed for the back of the net, but Morgan adjusted, slid to her post, and her left-pad extension kept the Clarkson lead at one. After Morgan's big save, a scrum ensued. SLU was then tagged with a five-minute major for grabbing the facemask.
 
The Saints penalty kill continued their recent strong play, killing off almost half of the major penalty before Clarkson took a too-many-players on the ice penalty.
 
The penalty hindered St. Lawrence from being able to establish any offensive flow in the period. The defense stood strong to keep the game 1-0 after two periods.
 
SLU came out of the second intermission with speed and tenacity.
 
Saints' forward Shailynn Snow had an impactful game. Three minutes into the period, she won a battle on the mid-boards and showed great puck protection but her shot missed wide of Pasiechnyk's glove. Her effort encapsulated SLU's strong start to period.
 
With nine minutes remaining in the game, the Saints headed to their first power-play but were unable to capitalize.
St. Lawrence's strong third period was neutralized by Pasiechnyk and the Golden Knights defense. They outshot Clarkson 15-4 in the third period.
 
The Saints pulled Morgan for the extra attacker with a minute remaining but could not generate the game-tying goal.
 

 
"Another solid effort tonight," said head coach Chris Wells. "Our third periods have been our best all year, and we threw a bunch of pucks on net and had great chances."
 
The Saints outshot Clarkson 27-21 overall. Morgan finished with 20 saves, while Pasiechnyk had 27 in her fifth shutout of the year.
 
St. Lawrence fell to 7-7-0 with the loss, while Clarkson improved to 12-3-1.
 
"After a wild one in Potsdam, it was a goalie battle tonight," added Wells. "We will be back at it next week with some very difficult league games on the road."
 
The Scarlet and Brown return to action next weekend, as they make the trip down to the tri-state area to face Princeton on Friday and Quinnipiac on Saturday. Both games faceoff at 3:00 p.m.