With the game at 2-2 entering the third period, Nicholas Beneteau tallied his first collegiate goal in style in the third period to send the St. Lawrence University men's hockey team to a 3-2 win over No. 13/14 Dartmouth on Friday night in Thompson Arena.

St. Lawrence improved to 5-11-0 with the win, and 1-4-0 in ECAC play. The Big Green, who came into the game ranked number four in the Pairwise, fell to 6-2-1 on the year and 4-1-1 in league play.

Sophomore Mason Kucenski was the star in the game's opening minutes making a few crucial saves which were sandwiched by great efforts from Reilly Connors and Isaac Tremblay on the other end of the ice, the latter of which saw his shot snared by the pad of Roan Clarke. The game cruised into the media timeout and the Saints cashed in shortly after.

Senior captain Philippe Chapleau kept the puck in following the faceoff win and found Tyler Cristall, who went below the goal. The junior found his fellow junior forward Felikss Gavars, who carried the puck out into the slot and fired a wrist shot to the short-side corner through a screen and in to give the Scarlet and Brown the lead.

Dartmouth would go on the game's first power play shortly after and failed to convert on the Saints' top-three-ranked penalty kill unit. The chance was cut short by a penalty of their own sending St. Lawrence on a shortened power play which was also stymied.

The penalty box attendant stayed busy as the Big Green were afforded their second chance of the period. The effort was stopped and nearly backfired as Gavars, who was on a long shift, nearly went in on a breakaway. However, the game would go into the break at 1-0.

Dartmouth pressured early in the first and capitalized on a bad bounce. A pass deflected off a Saint defender and caught Kucenski out of possession allowing Hayden Stavroff to tie the game at 1-1.

St. Lawrence punched right back less than five minutes later to regain the lead. Beneteau started the play by corralling a Mason Waite pass and driving the Big Green net. The puck was saved and in the ensuing scrum, the rebound bounced to the far post where Cristall roofed a backhand shot to give the Saints the 2-1 edge.

The back-and-forth action swung back in favor of Dartmouth, who scored right before the media timeout. The bad bounces continued for the Saints as CJ Foley's pass found the skate of a St. Lawrence defender and ricocheted in to tie the game.

St. Lawrence nearly regained the lead on two occasions the rest of the period as a Spencer Bell deflection and a late 2-on-1 were both sniffed out by Clarke.

The Scarlet and Brown carried the momentum into the third where chances from Evan Orloff, Gunnar Thoreson, and Greg Lapointe all had notable chances on the goal. The pressure led to the fifth minute of the game where the Saints once again took the lead.

Jacob Bernadet carried the puck down the right wing and whizzed a shot over the shoulder of the Dartmouth defender. Waite collected the puck as it went around the boards and fired a shot on goal that was padded aside. Beneteau was at the right place at the right time sweeping the rebound home to make it 3-2 and earn his first career goal in Scarlet and Brown.

St. Lawrence had to survive yet another penalty kill late in the third and the play carried into a late TV timeout where both teams collected their breath.

After nearly three minutes of offensive zone time, the Saints had to fall back as the Big Green emptied their goal for the extra attacker. The game looked like it was over when a Gavars backhander was hoisted towards the Dartmouth goal. However, the shot rang off the post and the Saints were nailed with a penalty making it 6-on-4.

Two huge plays came the Saints way as Waite came up with a huge block with less than a minute to go. The second play came in the last ten seconds when the pendulum of puck luck finally swung in favor of St. Lawrence as a one-timed effort went off Kucenski and rang off the iron allowing the clock to hit zeroes on the win.

Kucenski came up with 29 saves in the effort, while Clarke stopped 16 in the other goal. Both teams came up empty on the power play with Dartmouth going 0-for-4 and the Saints going 0-for-1 in a shortened effort.

The Skating Saints will close out the 2024 portion of their schedule tomorrow night when the team heads to Cambridge to take on Harvard in a 7 p.m. matchup.