Junior defenseman Luke Erickson scored his first career goal in the second period, and Reilly Moran brought the game within a goal late in the third, but two empty net goals gave the St. Lawrence University men's hockey team a 5-2 loss to Nebraska Omaha on Saturday night at Baxter Arena in Omaha.

The Scarlet and Brown saw their record even up at 9-9-0 with the loss, while the Mavericks record also went to .500 at 9-9-2.

After getting off to a slower start last night that saw just five shots in the first period for the Saints, the Scarlet and Brown got off to a great start equaling that total in the first half of the first period.

Of their shots in the first, the best bid came from senior captain Jordan Steinmetz, who caused a turnover and went down on a breakaway on the Maverick goaltender. The forward was turned aside by Simon Latkoczy to keep the game at 0-0.

St. Lawrence, who did not get a chance on the power play last night, finally got a chance on the man advantage, but were unable to capitalize. On the flip side, the Mavericks earned two power plays, that were stymied by the Saints' kill.

Omaha got their third chance of the night with seconds left in the first when Tim Makowski was flagged for a five-minute major and a game misconduct putting Omaha on the power play with clean ice in the second.



In the second period the Mavericks took advantage of the five-minute power play scoring once two minutes into the period and for a second time scoring as the power play ended to take the 2-0 lead.

With the major behind them, the Scarlet and Brown started to regain momentum and created chances on the Omaha frame. But it wasn't until there was less than five minutes on the clock that the Saints would cut into the lead.

With under five minutes in the second Erickson shutdown a Maverick clearing attempt at the blueline and got the puck down the wall to Tyler Cristall. Cristall corralled the puck and found Erickson, who snuck down into scoring territory. The junior defender ripped a shot over the glove of Latkoczy to make it a 2-1 game. The goal was the first for Erickson in his Saints career.

The 2-1 score did not last long as Omaha's Nolan Sullivan made a tremendous individual effort to score with 2:05 on the clock in the middle period to give his team the 3-1 lead.

As the game crossed the halfway point of the third period, the Saints would once again come within one. At the 11:42 mark of the third, Nicholas Trela found Aleksi Peltonen, who tried to wraparound on the Omaha net. The puck squirted out to Reilly Moran, who fired a snapshot over the shoulder of Latkoczy to bring the score to 3-2.

The Skating Saints ratcheted up pressure in hopes for an equalizer late but couldn't find one. Instead, the Mavericks scored two empty-net goals in rapid succession to put the game out of reach.

Emil Zetterquist made 20 saves in the Saints' net on 23 shots, while Latkoczy made 28 saves on St. Lawrence's 30 shots on goal.

Omaha's power play was the difference in the game as the unit scored twice in the second period en route to going 2-for-5. St. Lawrence went 0-for-2.

The Skating Saints will be back in action on Thursday, January 5, when the team travels to Niagara Falls to take on Niagara in a make-up game from the first semester before both teams head to Appleton Arena for their regularly scheduled January 7 matchup.