Anna Segedi, Aly McLeod and Abby Hustler scored, but an early lead helped power the fourth-ranked Colgate Raiders to a 7-3 win over the No. 10 St. Lawrence University women's hockey team to open the 2024 portion of the schedule on Friday evening in Hamilton, N.Y.

Emma Pais cashed in for the first two goals of the game for the Raiders, as she scored her first on the power play from the doorstep, and scored her second with a deflection, one minute and 19 seconds later.

Segedi put the first home for the Saints to bring the game back within one after a scramble in front of Colgate goaltender Hannah Murphy on the power play, making it 2-1.

Dara Greig scored with 2:08 remaining in the first to put Colgate up 3-1 before the first break.

The Raiders led 12-7 in shots on goal after the first 20 minutes of play.

Tessa Holk continued the scoring for Colgate, as she picked up the puck in the neutral zone and beat Saints' goaltender Emma-Sofie Nordström blocker side to make it 4-1.

Colgate took a 5-1 lead off a goal from Danielle Serdachny at 8:40 of the second, but McLeod scored the second goal of the game for the Saints, beating Murphy on the doorstep off the point pass from Melissa Jefferies.

After the second period, Colgate led 20-13 in shots on goal and 5-2 on the scoreboard.

Kristýna Kaltounková scored for the Raiders to make it 6-2, but shot from the right circle by Hustler closed the gap back to three, until Allyson Simpson scored for Colgate and the 7-3 final.  

"Certainly not the start to the New Year we wanted," said head coach Chris Wells. "I felt we showed some real good moments during the game that we can take on to Cornell. Colgate is undefeated in league play for a reason and we saw that tonight."

Colgate finished with a 33-20 advantage in shots on goal, while Nordström made 26 saves and Murphy finished with 17.

The Saints went 2-for-2 on the power play, while Colgate finished 1-for-3.

"As always we competed to the end of the game. We needed a few bounces in the second to stay in it and we just missed a few on the 4-on-4 and our power play was great again going 2-for-2. We've got another top 10 matchup tomorrow vs. Cornell and its always a fun game against the Big Red."

With the loss, the Saints fell to 13-7-0 overall and 7-2-0 in ECAC play, while Colgate improved to 17-2-1 and 9-0-0, respectively.

St. Lawrence takes on ninth-ranked Cornell, tomorrow afternoon at 3 p.m. in Ithaca.