Junior Felikss Gavars scored his first of the season 49 seconds into the game and senior Greg Lapointe made it a 2-1 game three minutes later, but goals from the Nittany Lions in the second and third sent the St. Lawrence University men's hockey team to a hard-fought 3-2 loss to No. 20 Penn State at the Pegula Ice Arena in University Park, Pa.

St. Lawrence fell to 4-3-0 on the year with the result, while Penn State improved to 3-2-0.

The Nittany Lions, who were playing their first home game of the season made a crucial mistake early turning the puck over to Tomáš Mazura, who was hunting the play. The center collected the error and sent a pass to Gavars, who was all alone and burnt Arsenii Sergeev just 49 seconds into the game to open the scoring.

Penn State responded well with an equalizer one minute and nine seconds later. Danny Dzhaniyev was the beneficiary of a great play, making it a 1-1 contest.

St. Lawrence would return the favor at the 3:38 mark of the third to regain the lead. Mazura and Gavars once again found the score sheet as Gavars shoveled a cross-ice feed to Lapointe, who wired a one-timer past Sergeev to make it 2-1.

Lapointe, who entered the weekend tied for the most goals in the nation, is once again tied for the country's lead with six goals alongside Aydar Suniev. Mazura is also among the nation's elite with the second-most points (10) and is tied for the most assists with nine. 



Following the hot offensive start, both goalies settled in shutting down the rest of the period. Mason Kucenski and Sergeev went save-for-save as the game went into the intermission.

Kucenski continued to play solid between the pipes as he faced seven shots in the first five minutes of the second period. The sophomore came up big to keep the score at bay.

It looked as if the game was going to stay at 2-1 going into the third until Reese Laubach found himself open with 28 seconds left in the middle frame and knotted the game at 2-2.

The Nittany Lions ended up taking their first lead of the game early in the third as Keaton Peters scored from the left wing and the score went to 3-2.

St. Lawrence was able to gain footing after the goal nearly tying the goal on a power play towards the middle part of the period. Gavars and Reilly Connors both had chances that were turned aside.

Kucenski kept the Saints in the game as the third went along making big-time saves along the way.

With just over five minutes remaining in the period, the Scarlet and Brown were issued a five-minute major and game misconduct putting them down a man as they searched for an equalizer.

Despite being on the kill, St. Lawrence was able to get the puck into the Nittany Lion end and set up shop. The initial chance was only stopped on a questionable offside call that brought the play outside the zone. Mason Waite and Mazura had chances in the final minute, but the clock would hit zero.

Kucenski made 25 saves in the Saints' net, while Sergeev stopped 14 for Penn State.

Both team's penalty kills came up big as both power play units finished 0-for-3 on the night.

Both teams will be back for game two of the weekend series tomorrow at Pegula Ice Arena in a 4 p.m. puck drop.