Reilly Moran, and Nicholas Trela scored in the first two periods and Drake Burgin scored a goal late in the third, but it was not enough, as the St. Lawrence University men's hockey team's comeback bid fell short falling 4-3 to Niagara on Thursday night at Dwyer Arena.

The Saints fell to 9-10 on the season, while the Purple Eagles moved to 11-6-2.

Penalties were the story of the first period, as the Scarlet and Brown were offered two chances midway through the period, before Niagara was given one of their own late.The Saints weren't able to get much going on their first man-advantage, but went back on the power play 16 seconds after their first effort.

On the second chance, the power play unit began to get more chances on Chad Veltri in net and finally struck pay dirt. With less than ten seconds left in the man-advantage, Ty Naaykens found Tomáš Mazura, who fired a cross ice pass to Luc Salem at the attacking blue line. As they crossed into the offensive zone, Salem dished the puck off to Reilly Moran, who stepped inside a defender from the left circle and ripped a wrist shot over Veltri's shoulder to take the 1-0 lead.

The Purple Eagles were given a power play opportunity with just under two minutes left in the first period, but the best chance on the effort came from Jordan Steinmetz, who was one-on-one with Veltri. The goaltender stood tall to keep the score 1-0 after 20 minutes.



The Saints attempted to double their lead early in the second period with shots from Boyer and Trela that were stopped.

Instead, Niagara went on the power play early just to see them go on a 5-on-3 for a little under a minute. The Purple Eagles were able to get on the board on the two-man advantage off a goal from Ryan Maumovski.

The Saints killed off the rest of the penalty to minimize the damage, but less than three minutes later, Olivier Gauthier gave Niagara the lead with a goal on a delayed penalty. Special teams continued to play a big role as the Purple Eagles doubled their lead roughly two minutes later on the 4-on-4 when Glebs Prohorenkovs buried a long wrist shot from the left circle.

St. Lawrence went back on the power play later in the period which turned the momentum. With four minutes left, Cameron Buhl took a pass from Felikss Gavars in around the crease, but his shot glanced off the post.

The Scarlet and Brown finally broke through with two minutes and 33 seconds left in the frame when Salem sealed off the side wall on an attempted clear. Salem's board battle bounced out to Aleksi Peltonen, who put the puck on net. The shot went off Nicholas Trela, then a Niagara defender, before laying in the crease. Trela directed the puck into an open net to cut the deficit in half at 3-2.

In the first two minutes of the third period, Ryan Cox scored for Niagara to make it a two-goal game once again.

St. Lawrence battled back with good chances from Mazura, and Peltonen before going on a power play at 10:03. The man-advantage came and went without a goal as the game went to a media timeout.

The Skating Saints turned up the heat after the timeout as they searched for a goal to get back into the game and went back on the power play two minutes later. Mason Waite generated a great chance on Veltri, but the Saints came up empty once again on the power play.

With the net empty and the extra skater on the ice, the Scarlet and Brown continued to pour it on the Niagara net. With 1:30 left in the period Mazura had a good look on net and beat the goaltender but his wrist shot rang off the iron keeping the game at bay.

With seconds remaining in the game, Max Dorrington won and offensive zone draw back to Waite, who sent a skip pass to Drake Burgin at the blue line. Burgin unloaded a one-timer past Veltri in net to make it 4-3 with 3.3 seconds on the clock. However, the Saints could not get a shot in the remaining time.

Emil Zetterqust finished with 17 saves on the night for the Saints, while Veltri stopped 25 of the 28 shots he faced.

Both St. Lawrence and Niagara had a goal on the power play with the Saints going 1-for-6 and the Purple Eagles going 1-for-5. The Skating Saints led 56-36 in shot attempts and 28-21 in shots on goal.

Both teams will pack up and head for Canton as the two teams will complete their weekend series this Saturday at Appleton Arena at 7:00 p.m.