Sophomore forward Felikss Gavars scored two goals on the night, while Greg Lapointe and Logan Ritchie each provided a tally for the Saints, but a streak of six unanswered goals led to the St. Lawrence University men's hockey team falling 8-4 to the USA Hockey National Development Program's U-18 on Friday in Appleton Arena.

The game was the first of two exhibition contests on the schedule this season.

Gavars got the goal scoring started early striking just 6:11 into the game. On the power play, Anthony Mollica, who was at the blueline sent a pass down to Mason Waite on the circle where he would skip a pass across to the winger. Gavars wasted little time roofing a shot over Jack Parsons to take the early lead.

Less than four minutes later, Lapointe would extend the lead with a tally of his own. At the 9:57 mark of the period a passing play from senior captain Josh Boyer and junior forward Oak Macleod landed on the tape of Lapointe, who buried his shot for the 2-0 lead.



Late in the first, the U-18's cut into the lead when Christian Humphrey's cashed in on a tic-tac-toe play with himself, Kamil Bednarik, and Cole Eiserman.

The Skating Saints would strike again at the 4:19 mark of the second with a familiar score line. Gavars once again collected a pass from Waite by way of Mollica and rung his shot off the iron and in to take a 3-1 lead.

The USNTDP would get a power play goal of their own midway through the second when Eiserman rifled a one-timer off a St. Lawrence penalty killer and in to make it a one-goal game.

The two-goal lead was restored shortly after when Philippe Chapleau found Will Arquiett in the neutral zone. A great pass would find Ritchie, who skated into the U-18's defensive zone and roofed a shot over Parsons.

The game would go into the third period at 4-3 however as minutes later, Shane Vansaghi made a tremendous individual effort to score and close the gap.

The USNTDP would turn up the pressure in the third with Vansaghi earning a hat trick after scoring twice in the opening 7:36 of the third.

Charlie Pardue would score next followed by an empty-net tally from James Hagens to take further control. Vansaghi would score his fourth goal on the power play in the final minute.

Mason Kucenski, who was seeing his first action as a Saints stopped 30 shots on the night, while Parsons made 28 saves for the development team.

The Scarlet and Brown will head into their midseason break and will return to action later in the month when the team hosts the University of Ottawa in their second and final exhibition game of the season. The team will be at Appleton for the contest against the Gee Gees on December 30 at 7:00 p.m.