The Saints got two shorthanded goals from Jan Lasak, and captain Justin Paul, while Felikss Gavars put on the finishing touches with his eighth goal of the season to power the St. Lawrence University men's hockey team's 3-1 win over Dartmouth on Friday night at Appleton Arena.

Ben Kraws stood tall in the net making 28 saves in the win.

"That was a hard-fought game against a team that competes very well," said Charles W. Appleton II Head Men's Hockey Coach Brent Brekke "I thought we got better in the third period and managed the puck better than we did in the first 40 minutes. Ben made some timely saves in net and the penalty kill did a tremendous job scoring two shorthanded goals."

St. Lawrence improved to 4-10-1 on the year and 2-3-0 in ECAC play with the win, while the Big Green fell to 2-3-3 and lost their first game of ECAC play moving to 2-1-3 in league play.

The shorthanded goals were the first of the season for the Saints and their first two since last February when Aleksi Peltonen '22 scored a shorthanded tally against Dartmouth on Senior Night. 

In the opening minutes of the game, the Saints were first to the penalty box, but it would lead to their first goal of the game. On the penalty kill, Gavars forced a Dartmouth turnover and fed an outlet pass to Lasak. The sophomore forward would race in on a breakaway and roof a shot over the shoulder of Cooper Black to take the 1-0 lead.



The Scarlet and Brown had two more grade-A chances to score in the following minutes as Paul and Lasak found themselves on breaks that were stymied by Black. Instead, it was Dartmouth, who would tally to tie the game. Nate Morgan finished off a passing paly from Ian Pierce and CJ Foley to tie the game at 1-1.  

In the second period, the Saints were flagged for a delay of game penalty but would capitalize seconds later. Following a faceoff win, a Big Green forward passed a puck back to his defense that was picked off by Paul. The senior captain forward buried the breakaway chance with a top shelf finish to reclaim the lead.

Less than three minutes later, another Dartmouth turnover would end up in the back of their net as Drake Burgin took control of the puck and dished a pass off to Gavars. Gavars skated the puck in close to the paint and beat the goaltender to give the Skating Saints a 3-1 lead heading into the third.

Gavars leads the team with eight goals on the season and has the second most goals in the ECAC behind Brown's Ryan St. Louis (9).

St. Lawrence would smother the Big Green in the third with a 10-4 advantage in shots on goal in the final stanza.

Kraws and the Saints' defense stopped all four chances and held Dartmouth at bay with their extra attacker to seal the win.

Kraws made 28 saves to help St. Lawrence to the win, while Black stopped 27 of the 30 he faced.

Both teams' power plays were held off the board with St. Lawrence going 0-for-3 and Dartmouth going 0-for-2 with two shorthanded goals against.

The Scarlet and Brown will be back in action tomorrow when the team hosts Harvard at Appleton Arena at 7:00 p.m.