Julia Gosling gave the sixth-seeded St. Lawrence University women's hockey an early lead, but the third-seeded and No. 8 Quinnipiac Bobcats rallied to claim a 2-1 victory in game one of the ECAC Quarterfinals on Friday evening in Hamden, Connecticut.

St. Lawrence fell to 16-18-3 on the season, while Quinnipiac improved to 28-7-0.

Gosling sent the puck left to Abby Hustler, who lifted the puck past two Quinnipiac defenders and back to Gosling, who went one-on-one with Logan Angers to put the Saints up 1-0. Shailynn Snow also assisted on the play.

The Saints carried the 1-0 lead into the first break and held a 10-4 advantage in shots on goal.

Just two minutes and seven seconds into the second period, Alexa Hoskin tied the game for the Bobcats after a scramble out in front of Saints' goaltender Lucy Morgan.

Sadie Peart capitalized on a second scramble out in front of Morgan to give the Bobcats a 2-1 advantage with just under seven minutes left to play in the second period. Maya Labad and Courtney Vorster assisted on the goal.

After two periods of play, the Saints held a 19-17 edge in shots on goal.

Late in the third, Quinnipiac took their timeout and the Saints pulled Morgan for the extra attacker.

St. Lawrence continued to apply pressure in the third frame and nearly found the equalizer on multiple occasions, with a couple tips from Hustler and Gosling and then Kristina Bahl rang a shot off the crossbar through traffic with 5.2 seconds remaining.

"Our games are always close down here and tonight was no different," said head coach Chris Wells. "There were ebbs and flows for both teams and Quinnipiac capitalized one more time than we did."
 
"We had some great chances in the third to tie it," Wells added. "Especially when Bahl hit the crossbar with our goalie out in last 10 seconds. We know what to expect tomorrow.  A hard-fought honest hockey game."

Morgan finished with 16 saves for the Saints, while Angers made 23.

The Scarlet and Brown finished with a 23-18 advantage in shots on goal and the Bobcats led in overall shots 41-40.

The Saints and the Bobcats will meet again at M&T Bank Arena for game two of the ECAC Quarterfinal series at 3 p.m.