Sophomore Gunnar Thoreson scored his second goal of the season in the first period to break the scoring, but four straight goals from the opposition, followed by an empty-net goal, sent the St. Lawrence University men's hockey team to a 5-1 loss to Yale on Friday night at Appleton Arena.

The Saints fell to 4-8-0 on the season with the loss and 0-3-0 in ECAC play, while Yale improved to 2-4-1, and 2-2-1 in league action.

St. Lawrence came out of the gates hot, generating six of the first seven shot attempts before Yale went to the power play early.

The Saints killed off the early penalty and got back to work pressing the Yale goal.

Their efforts finally paid off in the second half of the period when the Scarlet and Brown claimed the lead.

Mason Kucenski was the unexpected starter of the play pushing a pass to Isack Bandu, who touched it forward to Thoreson. The sophomore ran a give-and-go with Tomáš Mazura, who carried the puck into the zone where he fired a pass into the slashing forward. Thoreson tipped the puck through Jack Stark's five-hole to break the scoring.

Despite some good chances to close the first, the game went to 1-0 at the break.

St. Lawrence and Yale traded power play chances early in the second period, but the game remained at 1-0 thanks to Kucenski and Stark, who kept the opposing units at bay.



The Bulldogs found an equalizer in the last five minutes of the period as Kiernan O'Hearn's point shot was deflected off a defensive stick and in to make it 1-1 at the second intermission.

Yale scored again four minutes into the third off the stick of Ronan O'Donnell to take their first lead of the game.

St. Lawrence then went down 3-1 after a blown call 8:10 into the final frame. A Saints defender was carrying the puck in the defensive zone and was hooked by O'Donnell directly in front of the officiating crew. The whistles were mute however as O'Donnell was rewarded with his second goal of the game.

Yale then got a shorthanded goal from Rhys Bentham and an empty netter from David Chen to close out the contest.

Kucenski finished the night with 25 saves, while Stark made 26 in the opposing goal.

St. Lawrence will line up for their final game at Appleton in 2024 tomorrow when the team welcomes Brown to Appleton Arena for a 7 p.m. game.