Cameron Buhl scored a clutch game-tying goal late in the third period and Reilly Moran put on the finishing touches in overtime with a goal of his own, as the St. Lawrence University men's hockey team came back from a 3-1 deficit to beat Brown 4-3 in a winner-take-all game three at Appleton Arena on Sunday night.

With the win, and an RPI win in the other Sunday game, the Skating Saints will head to Hamden, Conn. to take on Quinnipiac next weekend. The quarterfinal series will be a best-of-three with the games on Friday and Saturday at 7:00 p.m. and at 4:00 p.m. on Sunday if necessary.

St. Lawrence improved to 11-17-7 with the comeback win, while Brown sees their season end at 7-20-4.

"I'm so proud of our guys battling from behind all night," said Charles W. Appleton Head Men's Hockey Coach Brent Brekke "Great job by our penalty kill to gain momentum from killing off the five-minute major. Our power play got a big goal and helped make a difference in the game. We're excited to be moving on to the next round. The Marsh Pit and Appleton Army was rocking once again, can;t thank them enough for the support all weekend!"

After getting off to fast starts in the first two games, the Saints came out slower in today's game and Brown took advantage. The Bears' first goal came on the power play and started with Brett Bliss feeding a pass across the blue line to James Crossman. Crossman held and zipped a pass to Michael Maloney on the back door. The puck deflected off Maloney's skate and into the back of the net to open the scoring.

Less than five minutes later, Brown would double their lead. Their second goal of the game came by way of Jordan Tonelli, who was on the doorstep, when Bliss fired a shot that was stopped by Emil Zetterquist. The rebound fell directly on Tonelli's stick and he jammed it home for the goal.



The Skating Saints struck right back a minute and 20 seconds later on a scrum in front of Mathieu Caron. Max Dorrington started the play with a shot that was stopped by the netminder. Mason Waite scooped up the rebound and passed it back to Philippe Chapleau. The first-year fired a shot that went off Justin Paul, then the post, and off Caron's back. Paul was able to stay with the play and bury the loose puck to make it 2-1.

Twenty seconds into the second, Dorrington was called for a five-minute major and a game misconduct, which put the Saints on a crucial penalty kill. The Scarlet and Brown killed off the chance to regain momentum. 

Midway through the second, Tristan Crozier made St. Lawrence pay on their power play turning a turnover into a shorthanded goal. The Saints were passing the puck around the top of their power play when the puck skipped over the stick of a St. Lawrence defender. Crozier jumped on the loose puck and took it all the way and beat Zetterquist to regain the two-goal lead.

The Skating Saints once again refused to back down as they scored one of their own on the very same power play 28 seconds later. Paul and Waite moved the puck around the top of the power play and onto the stick of Ty Naaykens. Naaykens loaded up on the top of the right circle and fired a heavy wrist shot around a Jordan Steinmetz screen and it kissed the left post on its way past Caron to make it 3-2.

The third period was a slow moving one, as Brown fell into a neutral zone trap to attempt to stop the Saints' attack. The strategy worked up until the 11:51 mark when Buhl tied the game with a clutch goal.

Sophomore defenseman Luke Erickson had the puck in the Bears' zone and fired a shot on net that was turned aside, but he fetched his own rebound in the far side corner. He shoveled a pass to Buhl, who stepped out of the corner and took advantage of Caron, who was looking at the junior forward from the wrong side of an Ashton Fry screen. Buhl sniped the short side corner to tie it at 3-3 and help send the game into overtime for the second night in a row.

Just 46 seconds into the overtime period, Steinmetz won an offensive zone faceoff and it was corralled by Fry, who got the puck to Moran down low. The sophomore attempted to go behind the Brown goal, but turned back to the left of Caron after finding traffic. Moran stepped out of the corner and fired a shot that deflected off Caron's blade and under the cross bar to give the Skating Saints the 4-3 win.



The series win was the first for the Saints since the 2015-16 season when,  the Scarlet and Brown swept the Golden Knights 2-0 on home ice.

Zetterquist stopped 22 shots in the win, while Caron made 26 saves.

St. Lawrence went 1-for-2 on the power play, but gave up a shorthanded tally. Brown went 1-for-3 in their man advantages.

The Skating Saints will advance to the ECAC Quarterfinals, where they will take on Quinnipiac. Friday and Saturday's game will start at 7:00 p.m. and Sunday's game will start at 4:00 p.m. if necessary.