Aleksi Peltonen scored the game-winning goal in the second period, and assisted on the Saints' two third period goals from Max Dorrington and Justin Paul, to lead the St. Lawrence University to a 4-1 win over Brown in game one of the ECAC first round series at Appleton Arena.

The Skating Saints moved to 10-16-7 on the year, while Brown fell to 6-19-4. With the win, the Scarlet and Brown reached the 10-win mark for the first time since the 2016-17 season.

"Obviously its good to get the win in game one of the series," said Charles W. Appleton Head Men's Hockey Coach Brent Brekke "I thought Brown did a good job and played a good road game that gave us some troubles and their forecheck was very aggressive so they pinned us down to get some good offensive zone time. Tomorrow, we have to be better in our execution, exiting the zone quick and play the game with a little more north mentality. Zetterquist was obviously very solid in net, and we got some great contributions from the lineup. Game two will be another great matchup for us and hopefully we can get another great crowd, the momentum they brought, especially early, was key for us. The Marsh Pit was rocking tonight for sure!"

Today's playoff game was a milestone one for senior defenseman Jeff Clarke, who laced up for his 100th career game for the Skating Saints.



St. Lawrence was quick to the scoreboard in front of a raucous crowd scoring two minutes and twenty-six seconds into the game. Logan Ritchie got the play started dumping a puck into the Bears' zone with Nicholas Trela chasing down the puck. The puck swung right around to Trela, who swept the puck out to Josh Boyer out alone in the slot. The junior ripped a shot past Mathieu Caron to take the early 1-0 lead. Ritchie's assist on the play was his first career point.

The Saints were afforded three power plays in the first period to try to increase their lead, but the man-advantage came up empty.



Instead, it was Brown's power play that was able to capitalize early in the second period. Samuli Niinisaari was at the point and dished a pass over to his defensive partner Luke Krys, who relayed the puck down to Justin Jallen at the goal line to the left of the goal. Jallen looked for a cross crease pass, but instead put a tight angled shot low on net that caught Emil Zetterquist off guard. The crafty goal tied the game up at 1-1 five minutes and thirty-six seconds into the second.

Just over three minutes later, Peltonen would tally his first point of the night off a bad Bears' turnover. Brown was able to fend off a Saints effort from Jordan Steinmetz and moved the puck out of the zone as both teams changed. A Bears player coughed up the puck trying to pass it back and it was picked up by Peltonen, who had a full head of steam. The junior burnt Caron to regain the Saints' one-goal edge.

Like St. Lawrence in the first, Brown was afforded three power play chances of their own in second period and went 1-for-3.

The game would remain 2-1 for over 26 minutes of action before Dorrington doubled the Skating Saints' lead in the third. With just under five minutes left to play, Mason Waite chipped a puck off the glass and out of the Saints' zone onto the stick of Peltonen, who was infront of the Bears' bench. The junior pushed a lateral pass to Dorrington skating through middle of the ice. The sophomore unleashed a rocket of a wrist shot over the glove of Caron to make the score 3-1.

With Brown now needing two goals to tie it up, the Bears opted to pull Caron with three minutes and fourteen seconds left in the game. The Skating Saints were not only able to stave off the extra-attacker chance, but put the game away with an empty-netter. In the Saints' defensive zone, the puck was up for grabs and bouncing around. Peltonen and Steinmetz were able to get their sticks on the puck before it was picked up by Paul at the blue line. The sophomore took the puck all the way down and sealed the win with a goal to make it 4-1.

Zetterquist finished with 21 saves in the playoff win, while Caron stopped 22 of the 26 he faced.

St. Lawrence went 0-for-3 on the man advantage, while Brown went 1-for-3 in their chances.

The Skating Saints and Bears will lace them up once again tomorrow night at Appleton Arena with the series in the balance. A Saints win will advance them to the next round, while a Brown win would send the series to game three on Sunday. Tomorrow's tilt will start at 7:00 p.m.