After going down early, the Saints scored five unanswered goals, including four in the second period, to give the St. Lawrence University men's hockey team a 5-2 win over Canisius on Sunday afternoon.

The Skating Saints improved to 2-0-0 with the weekend sweep, while the Griffins fell to 0-2-0.

"Good start to the season against two very good hockey teams." said Charles W. Appleton II Head Men's Hockey Coach Brent Brekke  "Really proud of the response of our team after a poor first period. Great sign for our young team and a good lesson to learn earlier in the season. Excited for the upcoming games with Notre Dame and Niagara coming to the North Country next weekend."

Unlike last night, the first period wasn't kind to St. Lawrence as Canisius raced out to a 2-0 lead after 20. Dominic Payne scored three and a half minutes into the game, and Oliver Tarr tacked on another with 32 seconds left in the first to take the lead.

The Saints cut the deficit in half early in the second on their first power play opportunity. Isaac Tremblay had the puck on the man advantage and got the puck to Felikss Gavars, who found senior captain Drake Burgin at the top of the unit. The defenseman burnt Ethan Robertson with a wrist shot to the far post to make it 2-1.

The assist was the first career point for Tremblay, who had another career first coming his way.



Midway through the second, Gabe Westling corralled the puck at the end of a long shift and fired a pass to Gavars up the left wing. The junior fired a shot that was stopped but Tremblay was waiting on the doorstep to tap the puck in for his first career goal to make it 2-2. Westling joined in with Tremblay earning his first point.

With the Saints rolling, a bad Griffin bounce at 13:55 led to St. Lawrence claiming the lead. A Canisius defender was looking to get the puck out of his zone and fired the puck off the stanchion. Gunnar Thoreson picked up the bad Griffin break, stepped into the offensive zone, and wired one past Robertson to gain the lead.

Canisius went back on the power play late in the second period but instead of finding an equalizer, the Saints' lead was doubled. On the kill, Philippe Chapleau outlet a pass up to Reilly Connors, who sauced a pass to Ty Naaykens, who was calling for the puck. The captain did the rest ringing a wrister off the post and in making it a 4-2 game at the second intermission.

The Golden Griffins got a golden opportunity in the first shift of the third as the Saints went down a man for a five-minute major penalty. Mason Kucenski came up big making three stops in the five minutes and the killers did a great job of keeping chances away from the goal.

Late in the third, Robertson was looking to head to the bench for an extra skater, but the unrelenting Saints' attack kept him in the net. With the Griffins hemmed in, Bandu sent Burgin a one-time pass, which the captain rifled top shelf for his second goal of the game and put the contest on ice at 5-2.

Kucenski picked up his second career win in the game, stopping 26 shots, while Robertson stopped 20 of the 25, he faced.

Canisius had the 28-25 shot advantage in the game due in part to their 11:59 of power play time. St. Lawrence went 1-for-2 on the man advantage and had the shorthanded goal, while the Griffins went 0-for-5.

The Skating Saints will look to keep the momentum going next weekend as the team hosts Notre Dame and Niagara. The Saints will play Notre Dame on Friday at 7 p.m., and Niagara on Saturday at 7 p.m.