Blueliners Luc Salem and Drake Burgin were able to score for the Saints, but the St. Lawrence University men's hockey team's comeback fell short falling 3-2 to Union on Friday night at Messa Rink.

St. Lawrence fell to 11-12-0 with the loss and 6-5-0 in ECAC play, while Union improved to 9-13-2, and 4-8-1 in league play.

It didn't take long for scoring to break out as the Saints were flagged for a penalty sending Union to the man advantage early in the first period. Liam Robertson was the beneficiary of great series of passes from Tyler Watkins and John Prokop to put the Dutchmen up 1-0.

The lead was extended to 2-0 with less than two minutes on the clock in the first as Prokop carried the puck around the St. Lawrence net and tucked the puck in behind Emil Zetterquist on a wraparound attempt.

The Skating Saints were able to turn the momentum in the beginning of the second period as it was Union this time that was flagged for a minor penalty putting the Saints on the attack. Less than eight minutes into the period, Will Arquiett led a 3-on-1 effort and put a tricky back hand onto Kyle Chauvette. The shot was stopped, and the ensuing scrum led to three penalties and a Saints' power play.

Toward the end of said man-advantage, Tomáš Mazura carried the puck into the Dutchmen end and ditched it off to his left to Jan Lasak. The rookie made a heads up play with a wall pass to the charging Salem, whose one-timed wrist shot burnt Chauvette upstairs to cut the score to 2-1. The goal for Salem was his team-leading eighth and matched Justin Paul and Max Dorrington, who each led the team with eight during the 2021-22 campaign. 



The Saints would continue to attack but late in the period were put on the penalty kill. Union would score their second power play goal of the game as Nate Hanley, who was behind the St. Lawrence net, found Josh Nixon alone in front for the goal and the 3-1 lead.

In the final minute of the second, the Scarlet and Brown nearly scored again when Felikss Gavars put a heavy shot on goal. The shot caused chaos in front of the Dutchmen goal and fell onto the stick of Cameron Buhl. The senior put the puck on net but was turned aside.

St. Lawrence continued to battle to try to crawl back into the game and were able to cut the Union lead in half at the 11:23 mark of the third.

Mason Waite started the play with a pass to Gavars, who used his speed to create space at the top of the offensive zone. The first-year dropped a pass off to Burgin, who fired a low wrist shot that deflected off the foot of a Dutchmen defender. The puck flew up and as everyone was searching for the puck it snuck over the shoulder of Chauvette to make it a 3-2 game.

St. Lawrence ratcheted up the pressure in the final three minutes and went on the 6-on-5 pulling Zetterquist. The Skating Saints put six shots on the Union net but just two found Chauvette as the Dutchmen parked the bus in front of their net. All their efforts were turned aside and the Union defenders buried the puck along the wall to end the contest.

Zetterquist stopped 18 shots in the Saints' net, while Chauvette made 16 saves on 18 shots. Union held a 21-18 edge in shots in the game.

The Dutchmen won the special teams' battle going 2-for-4 on the man-advantage, while the Saints went just 1-for-4.

The Scarlet and Brown will be looking to get back on track tomorrow when they travel to Troy to take on RPI at the Houston Field House at 7:00 p.m.