Junior Felikss Gavars scored in his second straight game but a power play goal in the second and an insurance marker in the third sent the St. Lawrence University men's hockey team to a 3-1 loss to No. 20 Penn State on Saturday afternoon in University Park, Pa.

St. Lawrence saw their record even up at 4-4-0 with the loss, while the Nittany Lions improved to 4-1-0.

The first half of the first period was all Mason Kucenski for the Saints as the goaltender faced eight shots on goal in the first ten minutes. The sophomore stood tall through the attack making all eight stops.

St. Lawrence was able to start getting to the net themselves ahead of the media timeout as Evan Orloff, Mason Waite, Reilly Connors, Gavars, and Spencer Bell all had looks on the Penn State goal, but the game remained at 0-0 with less than eight to go in the opening frame.

The Saints had a chance to break the scoring late with a power play chance, however, the Nittany Lions scored instead. While on the man-down, Jarod Crespo capitalized on an error to take the 1-0 lead ahead of the intermission.

Kucenski continued his strong play in goal in the second period and kept the game at 1-0 until the 3:43 mark when St. Lawrence knotted the game up at 1-1. Greg Lapointe was wreaking havoc on the boards during a Nittany Lion breakout and caused a turnover before dishing a pass off to Tomáš Mazura. The senior fed Gavars a one-time pass which the junior rifled off the post and in to tie the game.

The two teams traded blows in an attempt to take the all-important lead, and Penn State would come through on the power play. Armed with the man advantage, Aiden Fink tapped a loose puck home to regain their lead.

First-years Jacob Bernadet and Sam Hall threatened to tie the game again in the final three minutes, but the Saints would go into the intermission down 2-1.

St. Lawrence had to kill another penalty early in the third but was able to gain some momentum from the successful kill. Moments after the penalty was released, senior captain Drake Burgin had a great chance to tie up the game, but his slap shot rang loud off the Penn State post.

The Scarlet and Brown would go on to two consecutive power plays and generated 12 shot attempts but were unable to solve Arsenii Sergeev. The Saints followed up with three more even-strength shots on goal ahead of the media timeout but once again came up empty.

The timeout let the Nittany Lions, who were against the ropes, off the hook and they would capitalize with a Charlie Cerrato goal 18 seconds later to make it 3-1.

St. Lawrence pulled Kucenski late in an attempt to get back into the game but Sergeev closed the door for the win.

Kucenski finished with 34 saves in the effort, while Sergeev made 25 saves in the Penn State goal.

The Scarlet and Brown will head back to Canton and begin preparing for a single game next weekend at Stonehill on Friday, November 1 in North Easton, Mass.