Four second-period goals powered the sixth-ranked St. Lawrence University women's hockey team to a 6-1 win over the Union Garnet Chargers on Saturday afternoon in Schenectady, New York.
 
Union came out strong in the first period, challenging the Saints defense and sophomore goaltender Emma-Sofie Nordström. Union outshot St. Lawrence 6-2 after twelve minutes of play, but Nordström held strong to keep the score 0-0. Her continued strong play gave the Saints' offensive an opportunity to grab the game's first goal.
 
Late in the first period, Sarah Marchand led the Saints on a 3-on-2 rush. In textbook tic-tac-toe fashion, Marchand passed to Taylor Lum, who fed Mae Batherson backdoor. Batherson gathered Lum's pass onto her forehand and sent a shot back towards Union goaltender Sophie Matsoukas' blocker-side, who was sliding to her glove-side post.
 
The Saints were not done after Batherson's goal. With 1:38 remaining, Union's
Maren Friday was called for a five-minute-major-penalty for boarding. On the ensuing power-play, Marchand, who was below the goal-line, sent a pass backdoor to SLU captain Julia Gosling, whose shot trickled past Matsoukas and into the net.
 
After one period of play, the Saints led the Garnet Chargers 2-0.
 
With 3:22 remaining on the Friday major penalty to begin the middle frame, St. Lawrence carried the offensive momentum from the end of the first period into the second. Just 55 seconds into the period, junior forward Kylie Mastel corralled a rebound off a Gosling blocked shot and beat Matsoukas five-hole for her first goal of the season.
 
A few minutes later, Gosling's second goal of the game marked the end of Matsoukas' day in net for Union. She was replaced by first-year Monja Wagner. Matsoukas finished with seven saves. Gosling's goal was the 49th of her career, and she is now one goal away from 50 career goals and two points away from joining the Paul Flanagan Century Club.
 
St. Lawrence continued their offensive onslaught throughout the second period with Wagner in net. Anna Segedi joined the scoring on a 2-on-1 rush off a Union turnover. She utilized her quick stickhandling to freeze Wagner and then beat her over her glove, top shelf.
 
Batherson would conclude the Saints four goal second period, finishing a nice pass from Marchand. Sarah Marchand finished the afternoon with five assists.
 
St. Lawrence led Union 6-0 after the second period.
 
First-year goaltender Kassidy Lawrence replaced Nordström to begin the third period. Nordström finished with 15 saves.
 
Lawrence was tested early and often in her twenty minutes of play. She came up with multiple big saves on Union players open in the slot. The Garnet Chargers were finally able to capitalize when Amanda Quan finished off a scoring chance in the St. Lawrence slot.

"Once again we were able to score some early goals to get us settled in," said head coach Chris Wells. "Our power play was then able to capitalize on the five minute penalty giving us the space we needed to complete the sweep."
 
Despite the goal, Lawrence was great in the third period, finishing with 14 saves. Likewise, Wagner was strong in relief for Matsoukas, finishing with 17 saves.
 
The two teams each had 30 shots a piece, while the Saints narrowly outshot Union 52-49 in-attempts. St. Lawrence was also strong on special teams, finishing the day 2-6 on the powerplay, while managing to stay out of the penalty box.
 
The Scarlet and Brown moved to 10-1-0 overall and 4-0-0 in ECAC play with the win and the weekend sweep; the Garnet Chargers fell to 4-9-1 and 1-4-1 with the loss.

"Lots of players were able to contribute on the score sheet this weekend and our goaltending was excellent," Wells added. "We will enjoy the day off Sunday and then start to get ready for our "school day" game at Clarkson on Wednesday morning."
 
St. Lawrence has a short turnaround as they face North Country rival No. 5 Clarkson Golden Knights on Wednesday at 11:00 a.m. at Cheel Arena in the Area Youth Game. The two rivals will then meet again on Saturday at 2:00 p.m. at Appleton Arena. Both games are non-conference matchups.