Sophomore Tyler Cristall and Junior Drake Burgin scored less than a minute apart from each other in the first period for the Saints as the St. Lawrence University men's hockey team defeated Clarkson 2-1 on Saturday night in front of a raucous 2826 fans at Appleton Arena.

St. Lawrence improved to 8-13-3 on the year and 6-5-1 in ECAC play, while the Knights fell to 13-10-1 and 7-4-1 in league play.

The first period was dominated by St. Lawrence, who outshot Clarkson 14-7 as they began their hunt for a weekend split with their bitter rivals.

It wasn't until the final two minutes of the period that Appleton erupted following a pair of goals.

With less than two minutes to go in the period, Cristall handled the puck and put a Clarkson defender to the ice with a great stick handle. The sophomore forward would put a short angle shot on goal that went off the leg of Brady Parker and in to give the Scarlet and Brown the 1-0 lead.

Less than a minute later, with Appleton still buzzing, a Clarkson turnover would cost the Knights. The turned-over puck came to Burgin at the blue line, where he would wind up a wrist shot and wire it past Parker to give the Skating Saints the 2-0 lead heading into the second.



It wouldn't be until the third period for another goal to be scored. Five minutes into the third period, Clarkson transitioned into the Saints zone and got a shot off that ricocheted off a defender and bounced in the goal cutting the Saints' lead in half. St. Lawrence was also tagged with a two-minute minor on the play, which they deftly killed off.

St. Lawrence would counter-punch and pepper the Clarkson goal with great chances. The best of the bunch came in the second half of the third when Felikss Gavars found himself with a one-timer on the doorstep of the Knight's goal. However, his stick broke in the effort keeping the game at 2-1.

The Saints would go on the power play twice in the third period but could not extend their lead.

Ultimately, Clarkson would pull their goalie for an extra attacker, but it was all for nothing as Ben Kraws and the Saints' defense locked things down to secure the win.

Kraws finished with 22 saves in the win, while Parker stopped 33 of the 35, he faced.

St. Lawrence dominated in the shot category 35-23, but neither team was able to take advantage on the penalty kill.

With the Route 11 Rivalry in the rear view mirror, the Saints will be back in action next weekend when the team heads to Ithaca to take on Cornell on Friday then Colgate on Saturday.