The St. Lawrence University men's hockey team is scheduled to open the 2023-24 season on Saturday, October 7 when the Skating Saints welcome RIT to the friendly confines of Appleton Arena for a 6:00 p.m. game.

At the game against RIT, St. Lawrence is celebrating "An Elaine Whiteout" in honor of the University's longest tenured staff member in its 167 year history. Celebrating her 60th anniversary working at St. Lawrence is Elaine White, an avid Saints hockey fan. She remains a dynamic resource for our students while building meaningful friendships across the North Country. The first 500 fans will recieve a free t-shirt and we encourage all fans to wear white!

Last season, the Saints finished the regular season 17-17-0 and went 12-10-0 in ECAC play. Their conference record earned them the No. 4 seed, and a first-round bye in the conference tournament. The team's run would end in the Quarterfinal round where St. Lawrence fell to the eventual ECAC Tournament Champions in Colgate.

The Scarlet and Brown return their top nine scorers from last season and 23 of 29 in total. The Saints also returned 86% of the team's point production from last season, the highest mark in the nation, and 85% of their goal production which is tied atop the nation with Alaska-Anchorage. St. Lawrence is tied for the sixth oldest team in the NCAA with an average age of 22.7. The squad features nine seniors, which are tied for the third most in the country, and the team brought in a fifth-year transfer goaltender in Ben Kraws from Arizona State, who will look to battle for time in net for the Saints.

Among the returners are newly minted captains Josh Boyer, who is back for a fifth year, as well as Luc Salem and Justin Paul, who will all don the "C". Also, back for a fifth year is Cameron Buhl, who had nine goals and nine assists for 18 points last season.

Senior defenseman Luc Salem led the Scarlet and Brown last season in all three scoring categories with 10 goals and 17 assists for 27 points. The last time a St. Lawrence defender had more points than Salem was during the 2016-17 season when Gavin Bayreuther '17 provided 29 points on eight goals and 21 assists. Salem earned Second-Team All-ECAC Hockey honors for his tremendous junior campaign and was recently named to the ECAC Hockey Preseason All-League team for the upcoming season.

Bolstering the lineup will be familiar faces from last season, who will look to take more steps up. Ty Naaykens and Mason Waite, a pair of Winnipeg natives each had three goals and 13 assists last season and were tied for third in points. Along with Waite, the Saints will continue to rely on Philippe Chapleau (1-13-14), who has been a stalwart since day one at St. Lawrence. Forwards Jan Lasak (4-11-15), Tyler Cristall (2-11-13), and Felikss Gavars (3-9-12) will look to build off strong first years in Canton last season.

"It definitely helps the chemistry of the team having the same core coming back," said senior captain Justin Paul. "It allows us to just continue off of last year and continue to take strides forward as a group."

Where the Saints will be different is in goal where for the first time since the 2017-18 season, the Scarlet and Brown will be without Emil Zetterquist '23, who played 6252 minutes throughout his storied career. The Saints have a four-man goaltender room that will battle for time between the pipes.

Kraws, along with Senior Grant Adams and first-years Cameron Smith and Mason Kucenski, will fight for time between the pipes for the team this season.

"He's got four years of experience at the college level," Charles W. Appleton II Head Men's Hockey Coach Brent Brekke said about Kraws. "He was two years at Arizona State, two years at Miami, and he's a big kid, who's going to push and battle for that net every night."

Five of the Saints' first six games will be played at home in Appleton Arena. After RIT, St. Lawrence will host the University of Vermont and Penn State before traveling to Merrimack. Later in the season, the Route 11 Rivalry against Clarkson is set to take place on January 26 and 27, with the Golden Knights hosting the first game before rematching at Appleton Arena the following night.

"We've got a great atmosphere and a great following," said Brekke about the home games at Appleton Arena "Our season ticket holders, our student section in the Marsh Pit, all those things get the guys excited to play at home."

"Having the crowd at home, having that early experience of getting some excitement and playing in front of your home team is massive for us," said Paul "So we're really excited to get in front of the crowd early and show them what we can do this year."

With a team laden with veterans, leadership and team culture will be key factors in the Saints' success.

"If your culture is strong, it gives you the opportunity to be successful," said Brekke. "You can have a talented team with lots of skill, but if you don't have a good culture you'll win hockey games, but you won't win championships."

"We have a lot of depth and a lot of leadership throughout the room," said Paul. "We're really excited to have such a big group of leaders on the team to maintain that hard work, that pushing each other and that staying the course and staying focused for our angle of winning the championship."

SCOUTING THE TIGERS
The Tigers went 25-13-1 last season and had an impressive 18-7-1 record in Atlantic Hockey action. RIT would advance past the Quarterfinal round of the AHA Tournament Playoffs with a 5-3 win and a 4-3 overtime win over Mercyhurst. The Tigers would fall in game one of the Semifinals to Holy Cross 1-0 in overtime before bouncing back with a 4-3 overtime win. Holy Cross would claim the series with a 5-1 drumming of the Tigers to end RIT's year.

Forward Carter Wilkie returns for his Junior season, the Calgary native led RIT in points last year with 40. He was first-team All-Atlantic Conference last season. Defensemen Gianfranco Cassaro is back for a 5th year, the Ontario native collected 32 points in 2022-2023, good for second out of all Tigers.

Wilkie and Cassaro each found the net 14 times last year, good for a first-place tie on this RIT squad. Aiden Hansen-Bukata scored just twice last season, yet distributed the puck at an elite level, tabbing 30 assists. The Senior defensemen is from the British Columbia area.

Goaltender Tommy Scarfone returns for his Junior season with the Tigers. The netminder started 34 contests last season, posting a 22-11 record with a .918 SV%
The name of the Tigers game is offense, where the team scored a season-high 10 goals against Canisius last year. RIT averaged 3.3 goals a game last year, holding opponents to just 2.6.

SERIES HISTORY: RIT
St. Lawrence leads the all-time series 10-6 against RIT dating back to the 1982-83 season. The two teams last played in Rochester in October of the 2021-22 season with the Tigers taking a 2-1 win.

The New York foes are split down the middle 5-5 over the last ten matches. The Saints are 7-1 against RIT at Appleton Arena compared to 3-4 on the road in the series. The Scarlet and Brown tend to play well offensively in the series averaging 3.94 goals per game.

---

Saturday, 6:00 p.m. | Appleton Arena
Watch: ESPN+ (US) | Stretch Internet (International)
Listen: 95.3 The Wolf / 92.7 WQTK
Live Stats: https://saintsathletics.com/sidearmstats/mhockey/summary Follow the links to check out the Skating Saints' latest news, roster, and schedule for the upcoming season.