Tomáš Mazura scored the first goal of the game, then assisted on Luc Salem's eventual game-winning goal as the St. Lawrence University men's hockey team withstood a third period Bulldog goal to defeat Yale 2-1 at Appleton Arena on Friday night.

St. Lawrence improved to 7-8-0 with the win, while Yale dropped to 1-8-0.

"That's an important win for us. We didn't play our best hockey but found a way to win," said Charles W. Appleton II Head Coach Brent Brekke "We need to be better with our execution when we have opportunities. Credit to Yale, they played hard and had some good looks and we were fortunate that Zetts came up with some timely saves."

The Scarlet and Brown got to the scoreboard first just 7:31 into the game. Ty Naaykens carried the puck into the zone and slid a pass over to Max Dorrington, who ushered the play ahead to the sophomore Mazura. The forward deked Nathan Reid in net and slid the puck home for the early lead.

The Skating Saints would double their lead with 2:04 left in the first to go into the intermission up 2-0. St. Lawrence had an offensive zone faceoff that Josh Boyer, who won nine of his 15 faceoffs in the dot, won back to Mazura. The forward dropped the puck back to Luc Salem at the blue line, who danced around a Bulldog forward. The junior then rifled a shot that ricocheted off a Yale defender and in for the two-goal Saints lead.

The first period tally was the fifth of the year for Salem, who leads the team in goals and is second in points with seven.

The two-goal deficit was enough for the Bulldogs, who swapped Reid for Luke Pearson in net to start the second period.

Despite there being five penalties in the second period between Yale and St. Lawrence both team combined for just ten shots on goal in the middle frame. This wasn't for a lack of trying as both teams showed their proficiency in blocking shots and steering chances wide.



The Saints' lead was cut in half early in the third period as the Bulldogs got a goal just 57 seconds into the final frame. Yale's Niklas Allain carried the puck across the blue line and dropped a pass to Briggs Gammill, who faked a shot and sent a slap-pass to David Chen on the doorstep. The forward wedged the puck over the pad of Emil Zetterquist to cut the lead in half.

The Scarlet and Brown went back on the attack to counter the goal but could not solve Pearson. Early on a one-on-one bid for Aleksi Peltonen was deflected away, then later in the period Dorrington had two great looks from in close that were defended well by the Bulldogs.

The best chance of the period came with under five minutes to go as Jan Lasak caused a turnover and sent a pass in behind the Bulldog defense to Tyler Cristall. The first-year passed back to Reilly Moran for a one-timed wrist shot but Pearson was able to snare the five-hole bid to keep Yale in the game.

With the goalie pulled, the Bulldogs were only able to get two shots away then failed to threaten as the game ended at 2-1.

Zetterquist faced 40 shots, but with 11 shots blocked in front of him, the senior stopped 13 of the 14 that found their way to the net. Reid stopped five of seven shots in his 20 minutes of action and took the loss, while Pearson stopped all 17 Saints' shots in the second and third.

The shot totals were low due to the 31 combined blocked shots with the Scarlet and Brown leading the way at 24-14.

Both teams went without a power play tally with St. Lawrence going 0-for-4, while the Bulldogs went 0-for-3 and gave up as many shots as they took with two.

The Skating Saints will be back at Appleton tomorrow night looking for a sweep when they line up against Brown in a 7:00 p.m. start.