Greg Lapointe scored a hat trick for a four-goal weekend and three other Saints tallied double digit points as the St. Lawrence University men's hockey team defeated Princeton University at the Hobey Baker Memorial Rink in Princeton N.J. on Saturday night.

The Scarlet and Brown improved to 6-8-0 and 3-3-0 in ECAC play with the win, while the Tigers fell to 4-7-0, and 3-6-0 in league play.

Lapointe's hat trick is the first for St. Lawrence since January of 2020 when Ryan Garvey had a hat trick in a 4-5 loss to Union. The sophomore, who entered the weekend with four career goals, tallied the first four goals of his season in the last two games. Cameron Buhl, who celebrated his birthday in today's game tallied three helpers giving him a weekend total of four.

"I want to thank Ron Fogarty, his staff, and Princeton Hockey for their class act by welcoming Greg Lapointe back to college hockey as part of the pre-game ceremony! That was pretty special and moving!" said Charles W. Appleton II Head Coach Brent Brekke "Foges is a great guy and that was first class. That was a great college hockey game and had excitement start to finish. Lots of momentum shifts between the two teams and some great goals being scored for both teams. We were fortunate to only give up two goals on the major penalty. They zipped it around pretty good and Zetts made a couple of big time saves."

Princeton was first to get a goal as Noah de la Durantaye caught the Saints on a change and fired a perfect breakout pass to Nick Seitz, who went on a breakaway. The forward deked Emil Zetterquist and barely beat the netminder to take the 1-0 lead.

Roughly five minutes later Buhl started a goal scoring play finding Tyler Cristall entering the offensive zone. The first-year carried the puck in and was stymied by a defender but was able to spin around and find Lapointe on the doorstep for the tap-in equalizer at 1-1.

The Skating Saints wasted little time in the second period as they drew a penalty one minute in and scored 11 seconds later. Following a faceoff win, Jan Lasak found Philippe Chapleau at the blueline at the top of the unit. The sophomore defender put a shot on goal that fell onto the stick of Max Dorrington, who shoveled the puck past Ethan Pearson to take the 2-1 lead.

St. Lawrence held onto the momentum and had another power play attempt but came up empty. Princeton would counterattack once getting back to even strength with a goal at the 8:52 mark. David Jacobs was forechecking for the Tigers and intercepted a pass deep in the Saints' zone. Jacobs stepped into the slot and roofed a shot to tie the game at 2-2.

Lapointe gave the Scarlet and Brown the lead back less than five minutes later to make the game 3-2. Chapleau and Buhl earned their second assists of the game as Chapleau found Buhl, who fired an outlet pass to Lapointe. The sophomore carried the puck in alone down the left side and wired a shot to the far post and in for his second goal of the game.



The Tigers turned up the heat in the third looking for another equalizer but they would not get it, instead it was Lapointe, who would put the Saints up 4-2 at 10:10. Buhl once again found Cristall, who skated up to the blue line of the Princeton zone and the first-year put a shot on the Tiger net. Lapointe was there to tip the puck home giving him his third goal of the night and fourth of the weekend.

Cristall earned his second assist of the day on the play and his third for the weekend as his line continued to do damage.

Just 22 seconds later, Reilly Moran would increase the lead with his first of the year. Luc Salem started the play with a pass to Felikss Gavars, who found Moran in the slot, the junior fired a rocket over the shoulder of Pearson to extend the lead to 5-2.

The game, which seemingly was out of reach, got even crazier as a five-minute major against the Saints would flip the contest on its head. Princeton, armed with a five-minute man advantage, got goals from de la Durantaye, and Jack Cronin to bring the score to 5-4 with just over five minutes to play.

The Scarlet and Brown did well to regain composure following the power play, but the Tigers had the momentum and continued to threaten in search of the game-tying goal. St. Lawrence got two key saves late from Zetterquist, who slammed the door on Princeton to secure the win.

Zetterquist finished the game with 33 saves in the win, while Pearson stopped 25 of the 30 he faced.

St. Lawrence had a 23-18 lead in shots entering the third and finished trailing Princeton 37-30 after the Tigers poured 19 shots on net in the final 20 minutes.

The Saints went 1-for-2 on the power play, while Princeton scored two key power play goals and went 2-for-4 on their chances.

The Scarlet and Brown will head home and prepare for their final home games of 2022 as they play host to Yale on Friday, December 9, and Brown on Saturday, December 10.