Abby Hustler's goal with eleven minutes remaining cut the Colgate lead to one, but the St. Lawrence University women's hockey team was unable to overcome the fourth-ranked Colgate  Raiders in a tight battle on Friday night in Canton, New York.
 
Both teams were sharp to begin the game. St. Lawrence had multiple transition opportunities to grab the game's first goal. The fast-paced, up-and-down action to start the game was then halted by four first period penalties.
 
Colgate's first power-play opportunity showcased a great display of penalty-killing by the Saints, specifically by Taylor Lum.
 
However, the Raiders capitalized on their second opportunity of the period. Danielle Serdachny posted on the top of the left circle, fed Allyson Simpson, who then quickly directed the puck to Kaitlynn O'Donohoe on the opposite circle. Colgate's fast puck movement and O'Donohoe quick release beat Saints' goaltender Lucy Morgan five-hole to put the Raiders up 1-0.
 
Colgate struck again only ten seconds after the O'Donohoe goal. The Raiders gained control of possession after a St. Lawrence faceoff win. Sydney Bard made a nice pass to Dara Greig, who had plenty of open ice in the neutral zone. She entered the Saints' zone and fired a shot past Morgan's glove into the top right corner.
 
St. Lawrence was unable to capitalize on their two power-play opportunities during the period, resulting in a 2-0 Colgate lead after one period of play.
 
The Raiders outshot the Saints 9-7 in the first period.
 
The Saints came back from a two-goal deficit when these two teams met on Tuesday in Hamilton, New York. Three power-play opportunities in the second period afforded St. Lawrence an opportunity to repeat Tuesday's result, but they were never able to capitalize. Colgate goaltender Kayle Osborne was sharp during the Saints power-play opportunities, keeping the Saints scoreless. Osborne had twenty saves after two periods.
 
Colgate narrowly outshot SLU 22-20 after the middle frame.
 
The Saints were unable to generate sustained pressure in the beginning of the third period, but a rocket from Hustler changed the momentum of the game. She entered the Raiders zone 1-on-4. With the numbers disadvantage, she teed-up a one-timer from the top-of-the-circle that scorched past Osbrone's glove into the top-right corner.
 
Morgan provided her team the opportunity to grab the game-tying goal. Late in the third period, on Colgate's fourth power-play of the game, Elyssa Biederman dangled the puck between her legs and around a Saint penalty-killer, she dished a pass to Sammy Smigliani, whose shot from the low slot was stuffed by a combination of Morgan's glove and left pad.
 
After the penalty-kill, Morgan was pulled for the extra-attacker with just over a minute remaining in the game. St. Lawrence did not capitalize with the extra-attacker to grab the game-tying goal.


 
Colgate outshot the Saints 29-22 in shots-on-goal and 49-42 in attempts. Morgan finished with 27 saves, and Osborne had 21 in the victory.
 
St. Lawrence finished 0-6 on the power play, while Colgate went 1-4.
 
"Our team gave all they had tonight," said head coach Chris Wells. "That is two solid efforts versus the fourth-ranked team in the country. We learned a lot tonight about ourselves. We had some people really lay it all out there this game. It is exactly what you want this time of year."
 
The Scarlet and Brown fell to 12-17-3 overall and 6-9-3 in conference play with the loss, and Colgate improved to 23-4-2 and 13-3-1 with the victory.
 
"It felt like a playoff series these last two games vs. Colgate," added Wells. "Lots of extracurriculars and plenty of nice plays and saves at each end. The intensity certainly is what we will expect moving forward."

The Saints return to action tomorrow afternoon to host No. 12/13 Cornell, a game with big ECAC playoff implications. Puck-drop is at 3:00 p.m.