Jordan Steinmetz was able to get the Saints within two in the third period, but an empty-net goal from Quinnipiac sealed their fate as the St. Lawrence University men's hockey team fell 4-1 to the Bobcats in game one of the ECAC Quarterfinals on Friday night in the People's United Center.

St. Lawrence fell to 11-18-7 with the loss, while Quinnipiac improved to 29-5-3.

An evenly played first period went by the way of the Bobcats after Griffin Mendel tallied a goal at the four minute and 36 second mark. Quinnipiac found themselves on a 2-on-0 after a Saints shot bounced off Joey Cipollone and sprung him for a breakaway. Cipollone was stopped by Emil Zetterquist on the breakaway, but the rebound was jammed home by Mendel, who was in on the rush.

The Bobcats extended their lead in the second when Ty Smilanic received a pass off the faceoff and beat Zetterquist through a screen. Then with just over 30 seconds left in the second period, Michael Lombardi tipped home a shot from Zach Metsa to extend the lead to 3-0.

The Saints nearly scored on the power play in the second period when a series of good passes found Mason Waite at the blue line. The first-year fired a wrist shot on net that beat Yaniv Perets, but rang off the cross bar to keep St. Lawrence off the board.

The Scarlet and Brown finally got one past the netminder at the 10 minute and seven second mark of the third. Assistant captain Tim Makowski started a Saints' rush by making an outlet to Reilly Moran. As the sophomore entered the zone, he got the puck back to Makowski, who fed a cross ice pass to Steinmetz. The junior burnt Perets to make it a 3-1 game.

With the Saints' goaltender pulled for an extra attacker, Quinnipiac iced the game with an empty-netter. With the faceoff just outside the Bobcats defensive zone, Skyler Brind'Amour won the draw back to Mendel. The defender sent the puck all the way down and into the empty goal to seal the 4-1 win.

Zetterquist made 23 saves in net for the Saints, while Perets stopped 20 shots.

Both teams went 0-for-2 on the power play in the contest.

The Skating Saints will be back at the People's United Center tomorrow and will be looking to tie up the series and keep their season alive with a win in game two. The game against the Bobcats will start at 7:00 p.m.