Sophomores Reilly Moran and Max Dorrington scored for the Saints, but their comeback bid fell short as the St. Lawrence University men's hockey team lost 3-2 to Princeton on Saturday night in Appleton Arena.

St. Lawrence fell to 7-15-6 on the season and 5-9-4 in the ECAC with the loss, while Princeton improved to 8-13-2 and 7-8-1 in league action.

The Tigers were the first ones to the scoreboard in the game scoring at the 12:55 mark of the first period. David Ma took a pass from Pito Walton skated the puck all the way around the Saints' net. Ma eventually found Ian Murphy alone in front of the net and he one-timed the shot home to give Princeton the 1-0 lead.

The Skating Saints struck back a few minutes later to tie up the game. Jordan Steinmetz won an offensive zone face off with less than four minutes left in the period. The junior tied up the opposing center and Aleksi Peltonen swooped in to knock the puck back to Moran in the shooter's slot. Moran fired off a quick snap-shot that flew over the glove of Jeremie Forget and tied the game at 1-1.

In their first matchup of the season the two teams combined for 10 goals but could only muster up ten shots combined in the first period of this contest.



Princeton wasted little time retaking their lead and turning it into a two-goal lead minutes later. One minute and 40 seconds into the second period, Jack Cronin tallied a goal to make it a 2-1 game. Then three minutes and ten seconds later Matt Kellenberger buried a one-timer past Emil Zetterquist to give the Tigers a 3-1 lead.

Later in the second, Princeton was flagged for two penalties giving the Scarlet and Brown a five-on-three advantage. Although they did not officially score on the power play, Dorrington was able to score seconds after the advantage and before the two players could get out of the box and back into the play. Luc Salem worked the puck down from the blue line to Ty Naaykens, who centered a pass to Dorrington in front of the net. The sophomore deflected the puck past Forget to make the score 3-2.

Shots were hard to come by in the game with both teams steering shots away, but the Saints were able to outshoot the Tigers 14-3 in the third as they looked to tie the game. They came extremely to getting that equalizer when Moran found himself all alone in front of Forget with six and a half minutes on the clock. Moran's tried to tuck a shot around the goaltender but his bid was stopped by a toe save from Forget in net to keep the 3-2 lead.

With 3:55 left in the game, the Saints were tagged with a five-minute major that put them man-down until they pulled Zetterquist for a five-on-five. Forget was replaced by Aidan Porter moments later due to an injury, which forced Porter into a tough spot. The Saints were unable to come up with many chances to test him as Porter made two saves late to ice the game.

Zetterquist made 12 saves in the contest, while Forget made 22 in the win. Porter finished with two saves in his two minutes and 51 seconds of action.

The Scarlet and Brown went 0-for-6 on the power play, despite scoring just seconds after the 5-on-3. Princeton went 0-for-4 in their opportunities.

The Skating Saints will return to the road next weekend for their final two away games of the regular season. On Friday, February 18, the Saints will travel to Ithaca to take on Cornell, then on Saturday will head to Hamilton to take on Colgate.