The Saints' offense got three unanswered goals in the third from Cameron Buhl, Tomáš Mazura, and Justin Paul, while first-year goaltender Mason Kucenski closed the game with 15 saves on 15 shots in net to lead the St. Lawrence University men's hockey team to a 5-2 win over the University of Ottawa in Exhibition action at Appleton Arena on Saturday night.

Tyler Cristall, Greg Lapointe, and Buhl each provided a goal and an assist in the effort for the Scarlet and Brown.

St. Lawrence raced out to an early lead in the contest on the power play just 5:39 into the game. Cristall controlled the puck on the right circle in the offensive zone to start the play, where he would skip a pass to Philippe Chapleau at the blue line. The defender sent a pass in to Max Dorrington, who redirected the pass to Cristall, who was wide open on the doorstep for the goal to put the Saints up 1-0.

The Scarlet and Brown would score again less than four minutes later to take a 2-0 lead. First-year defender Jan Olenginski started the play by chipping the puck from the blue line down to Oak Macleod behind the Gee-Gees goal. The junior forward made a no-look backhand pass out front to Lapointe, who beat the Ottawa goaltender to extend the lead.  



The Gee-Gees would get one back before the end of the first when Bradley Chenier took a pass from Aaron Brown and beat Ben Kraws to make it a 2-1 game after 20. Ottawa would tie the game up midway through the second period when Justin McRae capitalized on a puck that went off the official and had the Saints out of position.

Kucenski would take the net in the second period and make an immediate impact in between the pipes. The newcomer stood tall making seven saves in 7:12 of action to close out the second period. 

The tied game would last 3:34 into the third period before Buhl put the Saints up once again. The graduate student received a pass from Cristall by way of Tucker McIntosh and held the puck in dangerous territory. With the goaltender cheating the pass, Buhl would wire a wrist shot over the shoulder of the goaltender and in to make it a 3-2 game.

Later in the period, the Saints would get a pair of insurance tallies to close out the game. Mazura collected a pass from Lapointe at the 14:55 mark of the third and snapped a shot through the five-hole of the Ottawa goalie to put St. Lawrence up 4-3. Then three minute later on the power play, Paul would bury a tic-tac-toe play from Buhl and Felikss Gavars to put the game on ice.

Kucenski finished with 15 saves on 15 shots in his 27:12 of action, while Kraws, who started the game, stopped 10 shots. The Gee-Gees got 11 saves from JP Tourigny in the first period, nine saves from Franky Lapenna in the second, and five saves from Zach Dietz in the third.

St. Lawrence outshot the Gee-Gees 30-27 and went 2-for-6 on the power play, while holding Ottawa to 0-for-4 on their man-advantages.

With 2023 in the rearview mirror, the Scarlet and Brown will be back in action next weekend to kick off 2024. The Saints will play Canisius College on Friday, January 5, and RIT on Saturday, January 6 to close out their non-conference schedule ahead of the ECAC stretch run.