Julia Gosling's five-point afternoon and Abby Hustler's hat trick led the eighth-ranked St. Lawrence University women's hockey team over the Dartmouth Big Green in a high-scoring affair on Saturday afternoon in Hanover, New Hampshire.
 
An early Saints penalty gave Dartmouth their first power-play opportunity of the game, but it was the Saints who capitalized. St. Lawrence was able to maintain possession in the Big Green defensive zone despite being a player-down, then Julia Gosling received a pass from Mae Batherson. Gosling fired a rocket from the high slot past Dartmouth goaltender Eleanor Rogers' blocker. The goal was the 50th of Gosling's career.
 
The Saints power-play was ranked 10th in the NCAA heading into the game, and after Gosling's goal, SLU's power-play continued its great play. In beautiful tic-tac-toe action, Sarah Marchand, from behind the net, passed to Gosling on the goal-line. Gosling sent a one-touch pass to Hustler, who tapped the pass past Rogers.
 
Hustler and the Saints' power-play were not finished. Just one minute and four seconds later, Hustler slammed home a rebound off Batherson's shot from the point. St. Lawrence's three early goals put them in full command, but Dartmouth fought back.
 
The Big Green added two goals in the latter half of the first period to cut the Saints lead to one. First, Dartmouth's Hamilton Doster beat Saints' goaltender Emma-Sofie Nordström five-hole on a breakaway. Then, with under two minutes remaining in the period Tiffany Hill's shot squeaked through Nordström.
 
After one period of play, SLU held a one goal and one shot-on-goal advantage, 3-2 and 12-11.
 
The Saints extended their lead back to two goals to begin the middle frame. Rachel Bjorgan intercepted a risky Big Green breakout pass and sent a backhand pass to Gosling. Gosling's shot beat a sliding Rogers for her second of the game.

Dartmouth continued to thwart St. Lawrence's momentum. Two minutes and thirty-eight seconds after Gosling's goal, Shae Messner's short-side snipe beat Nordström over her blocker to cut the Saints lead back to one.
 
St. Lawrence held a 4-3 lead over Dartmouth and 26-18 shot advantage after two periods of play.
 
Hustler and Gosling continued to shine in the third. Hustler intercepted a pass just outside the blue line and left a drop pass for Gosling. The senior captain entered the offensive zone with a toe-drag and then utilized another toe-drag to send a backhand, cross-ice pass around a Big Green defender. Hustler received Gosling's pass backdoor and shot it into the wide-open net.
 
St. Lawrence added a sixth goal with another power-play goal. In a 1-3-1 formation, Batherson was parked in the high slot and passed to Segedi at the top of the right-hand circle. The senior sent slap shot over Rogers' blocker to extend the Saints lead back to three. Segedi's power-play seemingly put the exclamation mark on the afternoon's contest, but Dartmouth continued to fight back.
 
Late in the third, two SLU penalties enabled Dartmouth to pull Rogers for a 6-on-3 player advantage. The Big Green capitalized beating Nordström twice; however, it was too little, too late as the Saints were able to hold on for a 6-5 win.
 
Power-plays played a key role as the Saints finished 3-for-5 and the Big Green were 2-for-6 in the contest.

"We got some pucks to go in tonight that didn't last night and ended the first semester at 7-1 in the league," said head coach Chris Wells. "Certainly a good spot to be heading into the break."
  
Nordstrom finished with 22 saves in the win, while Rogers had 31 in the loss.
 
The Scarlet and Brown improved to 13-6-0 overall and 7-1-0 in ECAC play, while Dartmouth fell to 2-11-1 and 1-9-1, respectively.

"Getting a few early really helped us settle in and get back to our game," Wells added. "Dartmouth played a strong game and kept coming right until the end. One short handed goal and our power play was on point tonight giving us an edge. We will enjoy the break and start the year off with some challenging league contests on the road!"
 
The Saints finished off the 2023 portion of their schedule today and head to winter break. They return to action on the road against Colgate on January 5th at 6:00 p.m.