First-year Gunnar Thoreson and senior captain Josh Boyer scored for the Skating Saints and Ben Kraws slammed the door with a 28-save shutout as the St. Lawrence University men's hockey team earned a weekend sweep with a 2-0 shutout win over Harvard on Saturday night in Appleton Arena.

St. Lawrence improved to 5-10-1 overall and 3-3-0 in the ECAC with the win, while the Crimson fell to 1-5-3 and 1-3-3 in league play.

The shutout over Harvard is the second for the Scarlet and Brown in their 117-game series history. The other shutout came in February of the 1991-92 season when Paul Spagnoletti '94 pitched a shutout in a 4-0 win over the Crimson in Appleton Arena. It was also the first win for the Saints over Harvard since the 2019-20 season when St. Lawrence skated away with a 6-3 Senior Night win.

St. Lawrence for the second consecutive night jumped on their competition early getting the first goal of the game.

Less than four minutes into the contest, Thoreson was backchecking for the Saints and caused a Crimson turnover at the defensive blue line. The first-year forward carried the puck into the zone and rifled a shot over the shoulder of Aku Koskenvuo to give the team the 1-0 lead. The tally was the first career goal for the Andover, Minnesota native.



The Saints kept firing in search for a second goal and outshot the Crimson 8-4 in the opening period. St. Lawrence continued to outshoot Harvard at 18-14 as the game progressed into the third period.

The one-goal game was finally broken in the third when Boyer scored his first goal of the season. With the Saints hemming Harvard in their defensive zone, Reilly Moran fed a pass to Mason Waite at the blueline, who fired a snapshot on the Crimson frame. Boyer, who was screening the goalie, saw the shot deflect off his pants and under the crossbar to give St. Lawrence a 2-0 lead less than four minutes into the third.

In the ensuing minutes, Jan Lasak, Max Dorrington, Waite, and Drake Burgin all had chances to make it a three-goal lead but were held off the board.

The tide would start to turn at 9:53 of the third when the Scarlet and Brown were assessed their first penalty of the game. Harvard would get just two shots on goal, which were saved, but the momentum carried into 5-on-5 play.

The Crimson poured 19 shot attempts on the Saints defense in the final eight minutes of play with eight of them finding the net. Kraws and the defense of the Skating Saints would prove to be up to the task turning away Harvard for the shutout.

Kraws stopped all 28 shots he faced for his second career shutout and his first in the Scarlet and Brown. Koskenvuo made 27 saves in goal for Harvard.

St. Lawrence would own a narrow 29-28 shot advantage in the game. Both squads went 0-for-1 on the power play in the contest.

The Skating Saints will be back in action at Appleton Arena when the team hosts the USA Hockey National Team Development Program's U-18 team on Friday, December 8 at 7:00 p.m.

The team will also be taking part in a Joe Marsh tradition in putting "A Check on Hunger in the North Country". Participating fans are asked to bring non-perishable food staples such as canned tuna, vegetables, soups, peanut butter, and pasta. Fans can also donate new clothing items and unwrapped children's gifts.

Children 13 and under wearing their youth hockey jersey that donate to the food drive will get into the game for free!

In addition, all proceeds from the traditional 50/50 raffle during the game will go directly to the church and community program holiday food bank.