After a scoreless first two periods of action, the St. Lawrence University men's hockey scored twice in the third period to defeat Dartmouth 2-0 on Saturday night at Appleton Arena.

The Skating Saints earned the fourth seed in the ECAC Tournament with the win, awarding them a first-round bye next week and a home Best-of-Three playoff series in the Quarterfinals.

Before the contest, the St. Lawrence University men's hockey program honored the eight members of the Class of 2023 in Francis Boisvert, Josh Boyer, Cameron Buhl, Ashton Fry, captain Tim Makowski, captain Aleksi Peltonen, captain Jordan Steinmetz, and Emil Zetterquist.

St. Lawrence saw their regular season record improve to 17-17-0 and went to 12-10-0 in ECAC play. The win secures the Saints' first .500 or better regular season record since the 2016-17 season.

The two teams battled to a scoreless opening 40 minutes of action, but it was not for a lack of trying. The Saints outshot Dartmouth 25-12 but were not able to get a shot behind the massive frame of Cooper Black.

The two squads combined for nine power play chances in the first two periods with the Big Green going 0-for-2 and St. Lawrence going 0-for-7 with 11 shots on Black.



It wasn't until two minutes and six seconds elapsed in the third that the game would see its first tally. Makowski started the play and would earn a senior day assist as he fired an outlet pass to Felikss Gavars. Gavars would carry the puck into the zone up the right side and eventually fed a pass back to Tucker McIntosh. The junior defender was able to beat Black to take a 1-0 lead and send Appleton into a state of pandemonium.

It was just six minutes and 11 seconds after the first goal that the Scarlet and Brown would secure some cushion. The Saints went on the penalty kill after a 4-on-4 opportunity, and a pair of St. Lawrence captains kept the Big Green napping. Steinmetz pinched the Dartmouth forward to the boards on a zone entry and was able to nudge the puck to Peltonen, who went on a break the other way. The left-shot forward burnt the last line of defense and roofed a backhand shot over the shoulder of Black to double the lead for St. Lawrence.

With the two-goal lead, and help across the league, the Saints were tasked with holding their lead to secure the fourth seed.

Down the stretch, Dartmouth attempted to mount a comeback pouring 14 shots towards the net occupied by fifth year Emil Zetterquist, seven of which found the net and were turned aside. The Big Green attempted to pull the goaltender for a 6-on-4 chance late, but were unable to solve Zetterquist, who earned his fourth shutout of the season.

Zetterquist stopped all 19 shots he faced in the blank sheet, while Black stood tall for Dartmouth stopping 33 of 35 shots.

Both teams came up empty on the power play with the Saints going 0-for-8 and the Big Green going 0-for-4. The St. Lawrence penalty kill outscored both power play units with Peltonen's tally. The Scarlet and Brown peppered the net to the tune of a 35-19 advantage.

The Skating Saints, who now have a free pass to the ECAC Quarterfinals, will await the results of the First-Round Matchups. St. Lawrence will host the highest remaining seed in the Tournament in a Best-of-Three series on March 10-12th at Appleton Arena with a trip to Lake Placid on the line.